Amazon Prime Video Reverses Renewals On 'A League Of Their Own' And 'The Peripheral', Scapegoating Strikes
Nobody believes them, they're just finding easy excuses
Despite renewing both series for second seasons, Amazon Prime Video has canceled both The Peripheral and A League of Their Own. The streamer had renewed the series back in February and April, respectively, but are now reneging on promises because the actors and writers sought more livable conditions.
Each series had 8 episode first seasons, with The Peripheral’s running weekly from October to December 2022, while all of A League of Their Own dropped at once a few months earlier on August 12. The second season of the latter was an abbreviated 4-episode final season. The reason Prime Video gave sources for these reversals is the strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA against the AMPTP, that because the latter won’t entertain negotiations, their desire to get production going in time won’t happen. Of course, they’re doing this without putting any effort toward making it happen.
They claim these strikes would delay the seasons significantly, logjamming and that would not premiere until 2025. Even if that were to be the case, audiences have given streaming shows much more leeway in terms of yearly releases. The Witcher has yet to release episodes in an even year. Stranger Things 4 didn’t premiere until 6 weeks short of three years since the previous season, with a staggered release where the final two episodes premiered three days short of the mark. The Mandalorian took over two years to return for season 3. What If…? is going on two years since the first season completed release and still hasn’t released season 2. Heck, it has the held-over Tony/Gamora episode so even a complete first season release might be untrue in that regard. Master of None’s Moments in Love season came over four years later, and Amy Schumer finally made her contractually-obligated fifth season of Inside Amy Schumer six years after the previous season. Even so, the budgetary add-ons that series incur from these delays are similar to the budgets of COVID-affected films that turned them into flops. COVID was also tagged as a reason for unrenewals for several shows including GLOW, Stumptown and At Home with Amy Sedaris. Fans would be waiting for their affected shows to return regardless, what made abandoning these shows in particular so necessary?
The Peripheral starred Chloë Grace Moretz as Flynne Fisher, “a woman trying to hold together the pieces of her broken family in a forgotten corner of tomorrow’s America. Flynne is smart, ambitious, and doomed. She has no future; until the future comes calling for her.” as the logline described. The series was created by Scott B. Smith, who also executive produced and was showrunner. It was also executive produced by Westworld’s Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan under their overall deal with Amazon. The cast also featured also included Jack Reynor, Gary Carr, Eli Goree, Louis Herthum, JJ Feild, T’Nia Miller, Charlotte Riley, Alexandra Billings, Adelind Horan, Alex Hernandez, Katie Leung, Julian Moore-Cook, Melinda Page Hamilton, Chris Coy, and Austin Rising
A League Of Their Own, an adaptation of the 1992 Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna starrer created by star Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham, follows the creation of the WWII-era pro women’s baseball team, and stands apart by incorporating the experiences of both diverse and queer women as a major focus. Such earned the show a devoted fanbase that will surely now see the renewal as an empty gesture of appeasement that the studio didn’t want to keep to. Jacobson made her anger known, that she can see through all the bullshit:
What luck I have had to get to tell these stories and play this character I love so much. What a rare thing in life. And so I am sad today.
To blame this cancellation on the strike, (which is an essential fight for fair wages, protections and working conditions, etc…) is bullshit and cowardly. But this post isn’t about all that. About all the ways this show has been put through the ringer. Not today.
This post here is about the special show I was lucky to make with so many incredibly talented artists and actors and writers and crew. A show I’m so proud of. Filled to the brim with stories worth telling. Full of so much heart and soul and value.
Thank you for watching.
To the five. ❤️
The series also stars D’Arcy Carden, Molly Ephraim, Chanté Adams, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Collindrez, Kelly McCormack, Priscilla Delgado, Kate Berlant, Melanie Field, Patrice Covington, and Sadiah Ekulona. It features guest appearances from Nick Offerman, Rosie O’Donnell, and Patrick J. Adams.
The series come from Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Television, so there might be a chance of shopping once the AMPTP’s ego breaks.
