We somehow don’t get enough queer stories, but the number of canceled queer-centric shows out there is crazy. Now Apocalypse is one such show.
Back in 2019, Gregg Araki went deeper into television by creating and directing a sci-fi horror show for Starz.
Up to that point, the celebrated queer filmmaker had been directing movies and TV shows, with the latter being contracted jobs on shows like Riverdale.
So, Now Apocalypse was going to be infused with Gregg’s DNA — and it was.
It was weird, funny, and horny.
The cast was not only talented, but also hot. Avan Jogia (Ulysses) and Tyler Posey (Gabriel) had an apocalypse-inducing kiss, and Beau Mirchoff (Ford) was really jacked for the role.
Kelli Berglund (Carly), Roxane Mesquida (Severine), Jacob Artist (Isaac), RJ Mitte (Leif), Desmond Chiam (Jethro), and Evan Hart (Lars) brought more heat.
Events in the show center on Ulysses and his friends — Carly, Ford and Severine — pursuing love, sex and fame while trying to navigate the surreal and bewildering city of Los Angeles.
But then Starz canceled the show after one season due to a change in leadership at the network.
Jeffrey Hirsch became CEO, taking over from Chris Albrecht, who had commissioned it.
Hirsch called it a “great experiment,” but “we have made the decision not to bring it back.”
Anyway, Araki moved on and has now directed I Want Your Sex starring Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde.
Photo: Katrina Marcinowski/StarzNow Apocalypse Season 2 Had Been Written Before Cancellation
While promoting the new erotic drama, Araki told Deadline that the season had already begun taking shape.
“The second season is actually written,” Araki said. “We wrote the second season, the cast was paid for the second season, we were prepping the second season.”
The director went on to describe how life imitated art because Now Apocalypse‘s cancellation mirrored a storyline in Season 2.
“And it’s funny because in the second season of Now Apocalypse, the character Carly, she gets paid to do a TV show, or develop a show, and so she has a development executive or something.
“Her whole storyline is working on the show, and then in episode 9, her executive gets fired, and her show gets put in a turnaround, and that’s literally what happened to us.
“Literally, our executive got fired, and the whole network changed and the mandate changes — it was so prophetic.”
Photo: Katrina Marcinowski/StarzNow Apocalypse is not the only queer show to be cancelled after one season, nor is it the only Starz show to be cancelled despite there being scripts for another season.
Spartacus: House of Ashur recently met the same fate.
But even after seven years, nothing much has changed. Networks and streamers are still ordering half-hour queer shows that they end up canceling after one season.
Maybe it’s time they stopped treating queer stories like “experiments” because that comes loaded with a negative connotation.
Now Apocalypse Season 2 will not happen after it failed to find another network. Also, it’s been seven years, and everyone is doing something different now.
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