Sci Fi Fans Are Very Worried Beloved New Series Is Getting Canceled

Scavengers Reign was released in the fall of 2023 to critical acclaim. It already has a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 8.7/10 on IMDB. The New York Times and The Verge have both given the show wild applause, noting the gorgeous animation, the thrilling storyline, and the grotesque encounters with alien life. The Ringer calls it “the most underrated animated show.” Enough said right? 

So what’s the problem? 

Well, Max does not seem to be a fan of renewing a lot of its animated shows. Fans of Infinity Train, Pac Man, Aquaman: King of Atlantis, and Close Enough have had to watch longingly as these series hit the production room floor with a final thud after only one season. Max does seem to have a fondness for one-and-done series, and they must advise their writers and creators to prepare for a single season. 

Scavengers Reign begins with a spaceship filled with humans in cryosleep headed to colonize an alien planet. The passengers are jettisoned from the ship to a different alien planet, Vesta, along the way. The ship then crashes with other survivors on it, so the entire crew is scattered. 

You’ve got three pairs separated out across this planet, trying to figure out how to survive and get back to their ship while the crew on the ship attempts to survive and worries about their missing members. One pair consists of the pilot and a botanist, Sam and Ursula. Another team is Azi and Levi, a cargo specialist and a robot. And the last is a lone man, Kamen, who hooks up with a telepathic and telekinetic life form from Vesta. 

The trials and tribulations that ensue as these survivors work their way back to the ship while avoiding or overcoming terrifying circumstances on the planet give meaning to the title, Scavengers Reign. And they are a large part of what has made this series so popular. We are witnessing a version of the same problems we saw in Aliens or Prometheus, where humans are sent like fodder out into space at the behest of an indifferent corporate entity.

It’s clearly also a commentary on the human attempt to interact with and control nature.

At the same time, we also get visuals in Scavengers Reign we simply could not have outside of animation. What is possible is so limitless here, because great animators can draw practically anything, and in this series, they do.

We get spectacular flora and fauna that behave in ways completely foreign to the human mind. We also get grotesque hallucination scenes. 

With shows like Hazbin Hotel getting renewed for a season 2 with much less critical and audience acclaim, and Velma of all shows getting renewed, with downright negative reviews, how could we possibly not get a renewal of Scavengers Reign? 

At this point, it’s anyone’s guess.