Just because you’re fully expecting something to happen, that doesn’t make it sting any less when the inevitable unfolds. That’s a sentiment being shared by fans of 1899, which became the first high-profile Netflix casualty of 2023 after being canceled one season in.
It’s a recurring theme for the streaming service to cut the legs out from under some of its most popular episodic originals, and we’ve been conditioned to completely ignore how well any project performs in terms of viewership data to live in constant fear that the axe is dangling precipitously overhead.
Warrior Nun was Netflix’s best-reviewed run of television ever, and that didn’t prove enough to save Alba Baptista’s Ava Silva. Similarly, countless genre-bending offerings have spent days, weeks, and even months lingering around the Top 10 most-watched rankings, only to be cast onto the scrapheap without an explanation being given in the majority of cases.
To put things into perspective, it’s worth noting that 1899 marks no less than the 25th Netflix exclusive boasting fantastical elements, impressive production values, and effects-driven action to have been dumped since the beginning of 2020, so the only real question is why users seem to be so shocked that the time-tampering multilingual gem has become the latest victim.
If we cast our eyes back to the heady days of March 2020, right before the world fell apart due to COVID, the list of axed Netflix shows makes for damning reading.
October Faction, V Wars, Messiah, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, I Am Not Okay With This, The Society, Altered Carbon, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Away, The Order, The Irregulars, Jupiter’s Legacy, Cursed, Cowboy Bebop, Another Life, Archive 81, Raising Dion, First Kill, Resident Evil, Fate: The Winx Saga, The Imperfects, The Midnight Club, The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, Warrior Nun, and 1899 have all come and gone, with the majority of them proving to be one-season wonders.