'The OA' Canceled After Two Seasons at Netflix
The OA is over.
Netflix has canceled the trippy drama after two seasons. The decision comes more than four months after season two of the Brit Marling starrer from Zal Batmanglij debuted on the streamer.
"We are incredibly proud of the 16 mesmerizing chapters of The OA, and are grateful to Brit and Zal for sharing their audacious vision and for realizing it through their incredible artistry," said Netflix head of originals Cindy Holland. "We look forward to working with them again in the future, in this and perhaps many other dimensions."
The series currently has an 84 and 83 percent rating on RottenTomatoes.com among critics and viewers, respectively. Netflix, like other streamers, does not release viewership information. (Among individual seasons, two has a 92 percent versus one's 77 percent critical consensus.) THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg called the mysterious drama a "failed, but not wholly worthless, experiment in TV autoerotism."
Created and exec produced by Marling and Batmanglij, who directed, the show starred Marling as Prairie Johnson, a woman who resurfaces after going missing for seven years. Now called "The OA," she can see despite being blind before she disappeared.
The eight-episode drama landed at Netflix following a multiple network bidding war and marked the indie darling (Sound of My Voice) duo's third collaboration and first for TV. Plan B's (12 Years a Slave) Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner executive produce alongside Anonymous Content's (True Detective, The Knick) Michael Sugar.
"From the very beginning when we were on our own daydreaming a story, we definitely thought how can we construct something that, many seasons out, has a satisfying end? So there is an end and there is an answer to every riddle and nothing is done to just be sound and fury going nowhere," Marling told THR when asked about the show's future beyond season one. "It all goes somewhere. And as to whether or not we get to tell that, I certainly hope that we do. There is a place that season two already begins in our minds and a place in which it ends."
The cancellation comes as Netflix has increasingly lowered the ax on scripted originals as the streamer continues to evaluate where to best allocate its financial resources. The choice, sources stress, is mulling if another season can bring in the level of new subscribers or if other new programming would have a greater value to drawing new customers to the subscription streaming platform. To that end, Netflix has recently canceled animated comedy Tuca & Bertie, ABC import Designated Survivor, She's Gotta Have It and Chambers.
