Netflix has canceled “Space Force” starring Steve Carrell, John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, and other notable actors after just its second season, another sign of a shake-up at the video streaming giant.
Space Force, which premiered in May 2020 with a 10-episode run, was picked up for a second season that aired in February 2022. The show has received mixed reviews overall and has struggled to break into the top 10 in Nielsen’s overall streaming ranking, though it topped out at number 7 in the streaming originals category according to Deadline, which broke the news of the cancellation.
In addition to Carrell, Malkovich, and Schwartz, the show featured Tawny Newsome, Dianna Silvers, Don Lake, and Jimmy O. Yang. The show centered around the newest branch of the US Military, the eponymous US Space Force, and its struggles to find its footing and be taken seriously by the government that created it.
Metaphors don’t hit harder, folks.
Analysis: Speaking of struggles…
The cancellation comes after a bad couple of months for Netflix.
It lost 200,000 subscribers in 2022, including 700,000 that it lost when it pulled out of the Russian market after Russia invaded Ukraine. That latter drop was offset by an additional 500,000 new subscribers from elsewhere. Though the expectation is that the subscriber loss is going to get worse before it gets better. Netflix said it will lose another 2 million subscribers before June 2022.
The news triggered a huge sell-off that wiped $50 billion from the company’s market value.
This has led the company to cancel several projects that it had in the works along with several other shows besides Space Force. The company also laid off the staff of its Tudum blog on Thursday afternoon, with many of those writers taking to Twitter to express their shock and disappointment.