Peacock Cancels ‘Brave New World’ After One Season
Well, that didn’t take long! US streaming service Peacock has cancelled their only current original scripted drama, ‘Brave New World‘, after one season.
“There will not be Season 2 of Brave New World on Peacock,” the streaming service commented in a statement. “David Wiener created a thought-provoking and cinematic adaptation. We’re grateful to the cast and crew who brought this world to life. We look forward to telling more stories with David in the future.”
Written by David Wiener (‘Homecoming’, ‘The Killing’), Grant Morrison & Brian Taylor (‘Happy!’), based on Aldous Huxley’s classic novel, ‘Brave New World’ was set in a seemingly utopian futuristic society. As citizens of New London, Bernard Marx (Harry Lloyd – ‘Counterpart’, ‘Game Of Thrones’) and Lenina Crowne (Jessica Brown Findlay – ‘Downton Abbey’) have only ever known a rigid social order, a perfect pharmaceutical called Soma, and a culture of instant gratification and ubiquitous sex. The two New Worlders embark on a vacation to “The Savage Lands”, where they become embroiled in a harrowing and violent rebellion, only to be rescued by John the Savage (Alden Ehrenreich – ‘Solo’, ‘Hail, Caesar!’), who escapes with them back to New London. Unfortunately for the citizens of New London, the rebellious ideas also follow them.
We don’t know the exact reasons for the cancellation, although it is likely to be a cost vs viewing figures issue. Like most streaming services, Peacock does not release viewing figures, so we don’t know that for sure. UCP, the studio behind the drama, are looking to shop it somewhere else, but that is usually a long shot.
‘Brave New World’ had a very twisty path to screen, having originally started out as a project for NBCUniversal channel Syfy in 2015. It was eventually picked up to air on Syfy’s sibling station USA Network in 2019, before being moved again to Peacock as an original series.
The series was actually the only homegrown original drama made for the US streaming service currently on-air, with the rest such as ‘Noughts + Crosses’, ‘The Capture’ and ‘Five Bedrooms’, coming from the BBC and other international broadcasters, alongside a string of Sky comedies such as ‘Code 404’, ‘Hitmen’ and ‘Intelligence’. They do have a number of new shows in the works, including the upcoming ‘Saved By The Bell’ continuation; A reboot of ‘Battlestar Galactica’; ‘Bel-Air’ – the hourlong drama version of ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’; Crime drama ‘Dr. Death’, based on the podcast of the same name; And fantasy drama ‘Jade City’ based on the Fonda Lee novel.
‘Brave New World‘ is currently airing on Sky One in the UK, with all episode available On Demand and on NOW TV.
