The Forgotten Sci-Fi Series That Survived For Years After Cancelation
There are many good sci-fi shows, but perhaps none are quite as unique as Defiance, not necessarily because of the premise but because of how the show continued far after it was canceled. If you’re intrigued, you can stream the series on the Roku Channel, but the fourth season will be a little harder to watch.
Defiance Launched As A Video Game And A Show
The thing that makes Defiance so unique is that it was a SyFy show that was launched alongside a video game of the same name. While the show was eventually canceled, the game lived on and even continued to tell the story of the series. It’s a pretty cool concept, and it even worked for quite a few years before the game was finally shut down for good in 2021.
St. Louis As A Sci-Fi Setting
Defiance was developed by Rockne S. O’Bannon, Kevin Murphy, and Michael Taylor and was set in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth that has been radically terraformed by an alien race known as the Votans. This leads to an Earth populated by humans, species from space, and new species that came from the newly terraformed Earth. The series follows Joshua Nolan (Grant Bowler), his adopted alien daughter Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas), and the titular town’s new mayor, Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz), as they navigate the growth of the Defiance, which is built on the ruins of St. Louis.
Season 4 Was Part Of The Video Game
Meanwhile, the Defiance video game was a massively multiplayer online third-person shooter. Tee game was available on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 before the official game servers were shut down in 2021 – around six years after the SyFy series was canceled. While SyFy canceled the show for financial reasons, the game was popular enough to keep going. The developer, Trion Worlds, announced a major update for the game in 2016 that was promoted as Season 4 of the show.
The Game Was Reborn Years After The Show Ended
In 2018, the Defiance game was updated with new content and re-titled Defiance 2050 for play on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. While plenty of shows have been canceled way before their time, Defiance fans did have the rare boast of continuing to revisit their favorite sci-fi world through a different medium. While the show was undoubtedly missed, the game was a good consolation.
A New Way To Use A Video Game Tie-In
Launching a sci-fi show alongside a video game is a bold endeavor, and it’s not something you see being done. While plenty of games have been adapted into TV shows or movies or video game tie-ins with shows and movies, it’s rare that the two are so intrinsically linked. It’s hard to say the experiment was a resounding success. Still, it was interesting nonetheless and helped give fans some closure after Defiance was canceled, even if it wasn’t necessarily the closure anyone expected.
