First, it was The OA; then, Anne With An E. Last week, the latest Netflix show to get the axe — and cause a subsequent uproar online — was the Lord of the Flies-esque teen drama The Society, which had already been renewed for a second season but hadn’t yet gone into production. Luckily for all the fans who immediately got #SaveTheSociety trending on Twitter, cancelled Netflix shows have been resurrected in the past, and creator Chris Keyser says he’s still holding out hope for a second season.
“I’d love to share the continuing story of New Ham at some point,” Keyser told Deadline. “All the scripts were written, so we know it all. We have fifteen characters in search of, I guess, not so much an author as an audience. I’ll need some time to figure that out, talk to Netflix about it, but that would be the plan.”
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Like Keyser, The Society’s cast was heartbroken to learn of the show’s cancellation. Alex Fitzalan, who plays Harry, penned an emotional goodbye message to his character. “It’s an awful feeling that I don’t get to say goodbye to this man properly,” he wrote. To the fans, he added, “I’ve loved reading all your messages and comments over the past few days, it really means the world. Thank you all for following along and waiting so patiently for so long. I’m so sorry there’s no chapter 2 to finish up this story.”
Actress Gideon Adlon also hopped on her co-star Kathryn Newton’s Instagram Live to discuss the show’s ending. They confirmed that the cast was supposed to start filming the new season at the end of August. Like Keyser, Newton hopes the show might get picked up elsewhere. “#SaveTheSociety is trending worldwide and I couldn’t be prouder,” she said. “I would like for it to be saved, too.” She even shared on Twitter that she had signed a petition demanding another season.
It isn’t unprecedented for overwhelming fan support to encourage networks to rehome shows. After Brooklyn Nine-Nine was cancelled by Fox in 2018, NBC picked up the sitcom for a sixth season and even renewed it for seasons 7 and 8. In 2019, Twitter exploded when Netflix cancelled One Day At A Time, a quietly groundbreaking and genuinely funny show about a Cuban family living in Los Angeles; in response, Pop TV purchased the rights to the show, and it went back on air. Viewers are now hoping that The Society could have a similar rebirth.
Keyser teased that many questions (namely, will these kids ever get back to West Ham?) would be answered in a hypothetical second season. “There were more answers to the question, why were the children of New Ham taken and how might they find their way home,” he told Deadline. “And, triggered by an event that has, quite by accident, eerie parallels to the current crisis, the citizens of New Ham would have found themselves spiralling toward war with each other.”
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