It’s a rare miss for Sally Wainwright as Disney+ confirms her show ‘Renegade Nell‘ has been cancelled after one season on the streaming service.
The series starred ‘Derry Girls’ Louisa Harland as Nell, a quick-witted and courageous young woman who finds herself framed for murder and unexpectedly becomes the most notorious highwaywoman in 18th-century England. But when a magical spirit called Billy Blind, played by Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso), appears, Nell realizes her destiny is bigger than she ever imagined.
“Disney+ Original series, Renegade Nell, will not be returning for a second season on the service,” said a Disney+ spokesperson. “We’re incredibly proud of the world created by Sally Wainwright and lead director Ben Taylor. We’d like to thank them, our production partners at Lookout Point, the entire cast – led by Louisa Harland – and crew for their incredible work on this series, all of whom we hope to work with again in the future.”
The series was written and created by Sally Wainwright, the person behind such massive UK hits as ‘Happy Valley’, ‘Gentleman Jack’ and ‘Last Tango in Halifax’. Disney has not given an exact reason for the cancellation, only saying it didn’t reach their renewal threshold based on “several metrics”. That likely means that, despite being very well-reviewed, it didn’t draw in enough eyeballs for the cost of the show. Wainwright is currently working on a new BBC series, ‘Riot Women‘, about five menopausal women who form a punk rock band.
The series is one of several “UK Originals” from Disney, which also includes the brilliant superpowered comedy ‘Extraordinary‘, the Tudor murder mystery ‘Shardlake‘, and the upcoming adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s ‘Rivals‘. Disney also announced at SDCC over the weekend that they had co-commissioned the ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off ‘The War Between The Land And The Sea’ starring Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
‘Renegade Nell’ was a Lookout Point original adventure series written and created by BAFTA award-winning writer Sally Wainwright, with Ben Taylor (Sex Education, Catastrophe) as lead director.
‘Renegade Nell‘ is on Disney+ right now, and whilst it won’t be back for a second season, the first doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, so is still worth a watch.
