It might have been a case of simply waiting for the other Victoriana-footed high-heel to drop, but official word comes that we won’t be seeing any more of SKY/HBO Max‘s The Nevers anytime soon.
The series, created by Joss Whedon and first formally announced in 2018, told the story of a strange event happening in Victorian England and a whole group of mainly female outliers, known as the ‘Touched’ who suddenly find themselves with strange abilities. It mixed elements of Sherlock Holmes with The X-Men and seemed rich in premise and execution. Unfortunately it’s debut happened shortly after revelations about Whedon’s alleged conduct during the Buffy years began to circulate and even before it aired, his participation was no longer being widely-used in the marketing and he said he was formally stepping back due to exhaustion. Philippa Goslett stepped in to run the show.
Six episodes, half the intended first-season, were broadcast in 2021 (to decent reviews) with production being affected by the COVID situation, but it was never clear when the remaining episodes would be fully completed and broadcast… or, if indeed, they would be. It was suggested that they would appear sometime in 2023.
Now it’s official that neither HBO nor SKY are scheduling those episodes and that there will be no second season. In fact, the existing episodes of The Nevers will be removed from streaming on the HBO Max streaming service. It is possible another streamer may pick up the remaining episodes, though there’s no guarantee that would be feasible or even logical given the cost.
Though there may have been creative factors, it’s also likely that there’s a financial aspect as Warner Bros has been undergoing some father infamous cost-cutting. Industry site Variety notes that cancelling and removing The Nevers will save the company on production costs and cast/crew residuals etc. The streamer also noted that the recently cancelled Westworld would be being removed as well.
UPDATE 14th December:
Warner Bros. Discovery held out a glimmer of hope for those wanting to see The Nevers and Westworld on other platforms. confirming that some HBO and HBO Max programs might be packaged in a new ‘bundle’ and be sold to ‘third-party free ad-supported streaming services’. The shows might also include the likes of FBoy Island, Legendary, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Raised By Wolves. To clarify, these would cover already-produced episodes, not the chance of more episodes being made.
