Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyong'o's Americanah the latest female-helmed show canned by COVID-19
Aux Features TV
Another day, another promising property succumbing to a seemingly neverending pandemic. The latest victim, sadly, arrives at the hands of streamer HBO Max, which has decided not to move forward Americanah. The previously slated drama series was an adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel from Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyong’o. According to Variety, plans for the show fell through after Nyong’o “was forced to exit” due to scheduling conflicts.
The issue stems from the evolving production schedule: As quarantine continued to push filming back, the new dates began to impeded on Nyong’o’s other scheduled projects. Originally confirmed for a 10-episdoe season, Nyongo’s was billed as the star while Gurira signed on to showrun. Both women were to serve as executive producers. Uzo Aduba, Corey Hawkins, Zackary Momoh, and Tireni Oyenusi rounded out the former cast. The story follows Nigerian woman Ifemelu, who departs for America while her love Obinze must live an undocumented life in London.
Americanah is the latest casualty of this upending COVID era of entertainment. Netflix, ABC, Showtime, and other networks made similar reversals over the past weeks, nixing previously determined renewals for GLOW, Stumptown, On Becoming A God In Central Florida (an especially puzzling development, considering that Showtime somehow made room for more Dexter, of all things), and other. It’s unclear as to why these shows aren’t allowed to just wait out the quarantine, but it’s possible that contracts play a major part in what is allowed to stay and what gets nullified. (And considering Americanah’s star-studded roster, perhaps cancelling the project made more financial sense than potentially triggering costly payouts on a stymied project.) But the trend appears to be hitting shows helmed by women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ performers the hardest. Per The Observer, 17 of the 23 show canned by Netflix alone centered on marginalized characters while legacy shows largely remain on hold. Whether it came down to contracts or other factors, this development stinks.
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Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.(No copy/paste required, just counting to ten while holding down O.)
Netflix looooooooves cancelling female-led shows while promoting male-led. They started doing it way before covid with both One Day at a Time and Tuca & Bertie. I’m happy both of those shows continue to exist, but there’s something very stinky about this.Also, I’ve clicked that Observer link and found out that Teenage Bounty Hunters has been cancelled as well. Which sucks. That show was so fun and promising. The fuck, Netflix?
I guess that proves it. Men are better than women.What other explanation could there be?
Hey! I take umbrage with that statement! Showtime also loves this! Goodbye On Becoming a God in Central Florida and hello again Dexter.
What, they cancelled the Kirsten Dunst show??? Fuuuuck.
The amount time people spend trying to spin things into something else entirely too much for me.A lot of shows get cancelled everyday. It’s going to keep happening. Studios are at a standstill right now trying to figure out what to keep and let go of because they gave no idea when things will improve.It has nothing all to do with gender. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of these cancelled shows restart after things are on more stable footing. All of these cancellations and announcing this and that don’t really mean much right now and it’s not signaling anything other than nothing in safe these days.
The reasoning for canceling the shows may not explicitly be gender/sexual orientation/race, but as is noted, “Per The Observer, 17 of the 23 shows canned by Netflix alone centered on marginalized characters,” so the cancellations are disproportionately affecting shows featuring female/POC/queer leads, and that can’t be disputed. The Observer article makes the case it’s probably about canceling newer shows and keeping existing properties, but the newer shows tend to be more diverse than the older ones. Or perhaps these shows were deemed too risky in content, but that’s a subjective judgement that favors maintaining the status quo and keeping shows that are more conventional (ie white, straight, male-led) in story and characters.
also it’s not like new shows aren’t getting greenlit and it’s mostly safe, boring, i’m-sorry-to-say-mostly-white-guy shit like a dexter revival and a spinoff of the boys.
i’m still pissed about stumptown
boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo HBO booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Oh no! I was really looking forward to see that one. I wrote my MA thesis on Americanah.
Honest question on these scheduling related cancellations – Do y’all honestly think the other thing you left for is going to be able to film either?i don’t understand why things aren’t pushed back? the stars may have been paid on these shows but all the crew are now without jobs, maybe for 2+ years, if they ever go back to working in production at all.just delay. at this point there won’t be anything on but even more permutations of Bachelor Nation, 90 Day, or Housewives.
“but all the crew are now without jobs”a) The other productions that people are booked on that delaying the current show would conflict with also have crews that would be without jobs if you just steamroll over their schedule. b) Even if you delay, that crew still isn’t working *now*. It’s not like they wouldn’t get assigned to some other show once shows are in production, so in terms of getting a paycheck it doesn’t matter *which* show.
And yet, as reported earlier by this publication, Showtime has just green lit another season of Dexter. Absurd. It really seems to me that these streaming channels are cancelling a lot more content produced and starring women and POC. I’m still so fucking pissed about GLOW.
i’m so sad about GLOW. not only because it was awesome, but also because i started watching late in the game (in between seasons 2 and 3), so i missed all the initial hype.i re-iterate my displeasure. BOO!
Stumptown got the ax, huh? It makes sense that they would cancel a crime noir with the potential to explore the deceptively complex and conflicted social legacy underlying the cheerily liberal facade of Portland, Oregon. It’s not as if any related themes might resonate with what’s going on nowadays.
I don’t think it’s right to continue to pussy foot around this issue. It’s either actually covid or covid is the excuse being used to nuclear bomb all minority and female led projects. Stop being wobbly and pick a stance. I have.Covid is a fucking excuse. Netflix started icing female led shows before covid became an issue. Nothing is stopping the production of the one millionth fucking Batman from being made atm. They are taking away the representational art that we have fought and scrounged for over the last several years and we are LETTING them by accepting these bullshit excuses. Fuck. That. AvClub could be at the forefront of calling this shit out if y’all wanted to be. PICK A LANE.
OR, these people are hot commodities and their availability is booked for the next century, just as claimed, and meanwhile there are a lot of mediocre white dudes and stale properties hanging around that you can just resurrect at a moments notice because no one is competing for them.
Don’t forget I’m Sorry.
Still confused as to how a show that only stars its creator/producer/writer/star Andrea Savage, Tom Everett Scott as her husband, and their kid played by a child actor in literally her only role can’t wait a few months or reformat. Scott’s great but how in demand is he? *checks wiki* is he too busy with The Healing Powers of Dude which is apparently a thing that exists on Netflix? Every one else is recurring or a guest star, and this is the kind of show where they could literally write a few eps without any of them around or keeping them on separate sets/green screens/skype calls/whatever.