The OA Cancellation Just Got Even More Meta

The OA is over...or is it? New fan theories suggest that the meta ending of The OA could imply that Netflix's cancellation was nothing more than a trick on viewers.

Though the evidence is murky, fans are pointing out that the very meta ending of The OA season 2 might be a way to get fans ready for season 3. In the season 2 finale, Brit Marling's character is transported to another dimension in which she is an actress named Brit who was just injured while working on a TV show. Fans suggest that perhaps the "cancellation" of the series happens within the TV show that Brit was on in The OA.

Other evidence includes actor Jason Isaac's in-character posts about the show, and suggestion that fans should practice the movements and see him in another dimension — maybe, for example, the one in season 3?

Then there's the fact that Netflix hasn't exactly confirmed the show's cancellation. The only statement issued was this one:

"We are incredibly proud of the 16 mesmerizing chapters of The OA, and are grateful to Brit and Zal for sharing their audacious vision and for realizing it through their incredible artistry," said Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix. "We look forward to working with them again in the future, in this and perhaps many other dimensions."

So...could it be true? If so, I'm happy to live in the dimension that gives us more of The OA.

So far, 2019 has been the year of the Netflix bloodbath, and the latest cancellation is no less brutal. On Monday, it was announced that The OA had been cancelled after two seasons, despite promises that we would follow Brit Marling and co. for three more. Knowing such a complex story had been cut short made the news doubly difficult for fans, but perhaps nobody mourned harder than the stars and creators themselves.

"Zal and I are deeply sad not to finish this story," Marling wrote on Instagram, referencing co-creator Zal Batmanglij. "The first time I heard the news I had a good cry. So did one of our executives at Netflix who has been with the since the early days when we were sketching out Hap's basement on the floor of our production office in Queens. It's been an intense journey for everyone who worked on and cared about this story."

For Marling, the allure of science fiction has been the ability to imagine female characters outside the society that has disadvantaged them, meaning she doesn't have to negotiate their agency or work within the confines of a sexist system.

"Science fiction wiped this 'real' world clean like an Etch-A-Sketch," she continued in her note. "Science fiction said imagine anything in its place. And so we did."

Batmanglij's message was more succinct:

But fans are filling in the words for him via a petition on Change.org.

"To all of its fans around the world The OA means way more than all those profit-driven executives at Netflix could ever imagine," the petition's description reads. "This marvel of unique storytelling that has touched and connected so many can not remain unfinished. Therefore, we collectively pledge for The OA to be given a chance to finish her story... because we were all listening, so very closely."

However, in Marling's post, she writes that she's accepted that this story won't have an ending.

"While we cannot finish this story, I can promise you we will tell others," she wrote. "I haven't figured out any other effective coping mechanism for being alive in the anthropocene. And maybe, in some ways, it's okay not to conclude these characters." Still, she does reveal one key solace in terms of fan favorite Steve Winchell, played by Patrick Gibson, who ending season 2 chasing after the OA. "Steve Winchell will be suspended in time in our imaginations, infinitely evolving, forever running after and finally reaching the ambulance and OA."

There's already speculation it could get picked up on another network, and that petition as over 15k signatures at the time of writing. Shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and One Day At A Time had their second chances at new seasons, and The OA could perfectly follow suit.