Amazon Cancels Sci-Fi Mystery Thriller Series After Season 2

While Amazon Prime Video doesn’t actively release viewership information for their platform, it does come as a major surprise that Outer Range has been cancelled. The series appeared as Prime’s third-highest placement on their top 10 list shortly after the second season premiered and even became recorded on the Nielsen Top 10 for overall streaming activity.

While we don’t have the explicit numbers regarding the show’s overall streaming performance, this cancellation news comes just under two months after the second season finale, which seemed to leave audiences satisfied and hoping for more.

Perhaps the reason that Outer Range was cancelled lies not within the return on Amazon’s investment, but in their upfront investment in the production budget. Specifics regarding the sci-fi Western’s budget aren’t available to the public, though reports regarding Outer Range‘s shooting schedule from back in 2020 suggest that the first season was spending upwards of $6 million per episode. If this was indeed the price tag for the inaugural batch of episodes, it stands to reason that the second season increased the budget exponentially, as the show brought on a wide array of new action set pieces, VFX shots, and more.

Outer Range also underwent some behind-the-scenes shake-ups during its brief run before being cancelled, including a change of showrunners from Zev Borow to The Devil You Know producer Charles Murray. The entire writing staff was also swapped between seasons after series star and executive producer Josh Brolin expressed disappointment with the pacing of the first installment. While many fans seem to be happy with the final product of both seasons, it stands to reason that certain Amazon execs would have reservations about a series that requires so much turnover behind the scenes.

For those who may have missed out on Outer Range before the show was cancelled, the series stars Brolin as a Wyoming ranch owner, who stumbles upon a bizarre black void on his land. As he struggles to understand the otherworldly vacuum, he and his family must also fight against the encroaching forces of rival landowners who seek to run him out of town and acquire his farm. Tamara Podemski, Lili Taylor, Imogen Poots, Tom Pelphrey, Noah Reid, Shaun Sipos, and Top Gun: Maverick‘s Lewis Pullman round out the ensemble cast.

While fans are surely outraged by the news of this cancellation, most would agree that Outer Range is still definitely a worthwhile watch. Some have already taken to the net to demand that other prestige networks and streamers such as HBO, Apple TV+, or Netflix pick up Outer Range now that it’s been cancelled, and revive the show for a third season and beyond. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem likely at this time, as many studios are cutting costs at the expense of fan-favorite programs throughout the Hollywood industry.