Popular ’90s Spinoff Canceled For The Worst Reason
In a world where Netflix seemingly cancels popular shows left and right, younger generations have grown accustomed to the unjust cancellation of great shows. But during the early aughts, The WB delivered a crushing axe to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff, Angel—not because the series wasn’t performing well, but because of a tough man’s play for power.
Joss Whedon Asked For Too Much
The WB officially canceled Angel after series creator Joss Whedon asked the studio for an early renewal. Series producer David Fury discussed the situation during an interview back in 2004. He called the situation between Whedon and the network head, Jordan Levin, a tactical “power play.”
“There was a power play that happened that just didn’t fall out the way they wanted it to. We wanted to get an early pick-up, we didn’t. In fact we forced them to make a decision, and with his hand forced [they] made the decision to cancel us,” Fury said. Suffice it to say that Joss Whedon may have unintentionally canceled his own series by asking for what some considered to be too much.
Angel Was A Massive Hit
Regardless of the power play, it made no sense for The WB to cancel one of its biggest hits. At the time of its cancellation, it was reportedly the second-highest-rated program on the network, topped only by Smallville.
But money is always a big factor, and Angel also cost the network a lot of money to make. When Whedon was seeking early renewal, The WB already had lined up a slew of pilot episodes for the fall season. The network was most likely hopeful that at least one of them could become the network’s next hit.
Plans For More Seasons
To make Angel’s cancellation sting just a bit more, Joss Whedon had planned out multiple upcoming seasons of the show. There were plans to develop Amy Acker’s God-King Illyria, a character the actor played better than her original character, once Illyria took over the sweet-natured Fred’s body in the final season.
Additionally, there were rumors that Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Oz (Seth Green) were going to find their way to Los Angeles and become series regulars.
Not Fade Away Ended On A Major Cliffhanger
The lead-up to Angel’s series finale seemed rushed, and as fans now know, that was something that was out of the writers’ control, given the situation.
Forced to conclude the long battle between Angel Investigations and Wolfram & Hart, “Not Fade Away” sees the crew split up to defeat the evil organization once and for all. During the final moments, they reunite just as Wolfram & Hart unleash literal hell on Earth.
Angel tells his surviving friends that they probably won’t make it out of this battle alive just before the series ends on what went down in history as one of the biggest TV cliffhangers.
Not The End
If you still aren’t over the terrible cancellation of Angel two decades later, we have some good news. Luckily, Season 5 wasn’t the end of the story about everyone’s favorite brooding vampire. The story picked up right where things left off on The WB via Angel: After The Fall, a comic series from IDW publishing.
Source: Way Back Machine
