Why was Raised By Wolves canceled?

After two seasons, HBO Max has pulled the plug on its science fiction series Raised By Wolves. It was one of the weirdest, boldest, most thought-provoking science fiction shows on television there for a minute, but alas, more seasons of the show appear to be a fading dream. The series followed two androids on a distant planet as they tried to raise a family of human children while coming into conflict with other human factions that survived the long journey from Earth and an alien presence with an enigmatic agenda.

It’s especially unfortunate that Raised By Wolves was canceled because season 2 ended with a few enormous cliffhangers. Mother (Amanda Collin) had just been forced into stasis by the ancient Grandmother android (Selina Jones), who was attempting to devolve the humans on Kepler-22b into sea creatures by rotting their brains with video games. Snake-baby bit the dust — but what was its connection to Sol? And speaking of Sol, that alien signal that was masquerading as a deity, what were its motives and connection to Earth? And of course, we never found out the fate of Marcus (Travis Fimmel) either, who ended the season floating upside down in a reverse Jesus pose after being crucified to the tree that sprouted from snake-baby’s corpse. Did Sol transform him into a bioengineered android? We’ll never know!

God, I’ll miss writing about this show; it always sounds one step away from either the worst or best acid trip imaginable. Anyway, Raised By Wolves is gone for now, and if you enjoyed this show you’re probably wondering why. Let’s discuss.

Raised By Wolves canceled

The first season of Raised By Wolves debuted on HBO Max back in 2020, and was very well received by critics and reviewers. Four months after HBO Max launched, Raised By Wolves was the highest-ranked original series on the platform, according to The Verge. Season 2 premiered in February of 2022, and while it represented a strong leap forward for the series, it didn’t generate quite the same buzz as the first season. Part of that could be the stiffer competition; HBO Max was just finding its footing in 2020 when season 1 premiered, but a lot of other fantasy and science fiction shows have premiered in the intervening years.

However, we do have a possible reason for Raised By Wolves getting canceled that is a little less speculative. Abubakar Salim, who plays the android Father in the series, shared a series of Tweets just before the cancelation announcement in hopes of leveling with fans. “It’s not surprising, especially after the news of the mergers and what is happening at Warner, that a lot of shows are not having their stories finished,” Salim wrote. “And unfortunately, one of those shows is Raised by Wolves.”

The merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery that he’s referencing has affected plenty of other shows, most notably CW shows like Legends of Tomorrow, Naomi, Batgirl, and a slew of others that got cancelled. The newly formed company is rethinking its strategy and these shows aren’t part of it.

Raised By Wolves petition

However, Salim also stoked the fires of fandom by saying that Raised By Wolves’ situation is slightly different because “there is hope.”

"You see, we’re in a unique position: we have a fully fleshed out and planned storyline, a Goliath of a production team behind us, incredible reception from critics and reviewers alike, and most crucially, a community base that is so strong internationally, it can not be ignored."

He’s not kidding either, because a fan petition is already going strong to save Raised By Wolves. As of this writing, it has over 11,000 signatures. Salim cited other popular projects that were able to continue due to fan movements, like The Expanse and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, as a way to encourage fans to get out there and spread the word about the show. Whether it will be picked up by another network, time will tell.

We wish Salim, creator Aaron Guzikowski, and all the rest of the cast and crew good fortune in their quest to continue the story. Raised By Wolves was one of the most solid high concept sci-fi shows in recent memory, and as weird as it could be, it was never anything less than really good. #RenewRaisedByWolves

The first two seasons of Raised By Wolves are still available on HBO Max, so whether we ever see the end to this story, we’ll always have those glory days with snake-baby to revisit.

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