Amazon has changed their mind in regards to one of their shows. Z: The Beginning Of Everything, the Zelda Fitzgerald period drama starring Christina Ricci, has been cancelled, despite a second season being renewed five months ago.
Amazon had initially renewed the series to the surprise of many, and a writers room had been busy prepping scripts and was already in pre-production, with reportedly $7 million having already been spent on the upcoming season. Amazon though, has decided to completely axe the series.
The streaming service is reportedly trying to reduce its spending on original productions in 2018, though why this decision came months after the initial renewal, with money having already been wasted, is a mystery.
The show was heavily rumoured to be cancelled after a single season, and the two-season renewal came in the wake of a study that claimed Amazon Studios’ development process had a “sexist loophole” that favoured straight-to-series shows created by men – Z was created by Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin – and in the wake of the cancellation of the popular female-fronted period drama Good Girls Revolt.
Whether Amazon felt initial pressure to renew the female-created show amid the allegations or they simply changed their mind will likely never be fully answered. An Amazon spokesperson told THR: “We heard a good pitch for season two, and based on that, we renewed the show. Anything else is speculation”.
In any case, as streaming rival Netflix keeps digging deep into its seemingly endless piggy bank – and reportedly planning to spend $7 billion on content 2018 – Amazon is going in the opposite direction and attempting to cut down their original content spending.
The next new show from Amazon is a fellow period drama, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Let’s see if that can fare any better than its period predecessors.
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