Amazon’s Utopia has been canceled after only one season. The show, which was a remake of a British television show of the same name, was created by Dennis Kelly. Gone Girl and Sharp Objects writer Gillian Flynn was the writer and showrunner for the American adaptation. Described as less violent and artistic in terms of visuals, Amazon’s Utopia adaptation strikes quite differently among critics and viewers.
Utopia follows a group of young adult online friends who uncover an underground graphic novel, titled “The Utopia Experiments.” It supposedly contains information on future world events like disastrous epidemics. The group eventually found themselves entangled in a secret organization’s activities after realizing they are after the said manuscript.
Gone Girl director David Fincher was originally set to direct and executive produce the show when it’s still under HBO. However, after budget issues, Flynn brought the show over to Amazon, removing Fincher’s name.
Why is Utopia being canceled?
In a report made by THR, Utopia was described as “too hackneyed to be timely, too grim to be escapist.” Despite its more than six-year journey to the screen, the drama did not appeal enough with only 51 percent rating among critics on RottenTomatoes.com. In addition and perhaps also a sign of a failure to cut through, Utopia does not have an audience score on the said platform.
The decision to cancel Utopia arrives after Amazon recently picked up sci-fi drama The Expanse for a sixth and final season. Amazon will instead focus on their other returning series including Hunters, The Boys, Carnival Row, and Jack Ryan. It will also look further on producing The Lord of the Rings (TV Adaptation), A League of Their Own and The Peripheral, among others.
Indeed, it is hard to predict exactly if a show performs well in terms of streaming. That is because little information/statistics are being released by companies about stream counts and reviews. Hence, regardless of its growing fanbase, most viewers most likely still saw Utopia as too grim and cruel, violence-laced, and untimely. However, Utopia may still be picked up by another production company in the future should audience count really matter. For now, it seems that this comic book will have to stay closed.