Netflix cancels The Midnight Club after one season — and its creator has the perfect response
It’s been a few months since we saw a high-profile Netflix cancellation, and while that streak was refreshing it was always likely to end sooner rather than later. After all, the streamer has developed a reputation for swiftly canceling shows, often after just a single season, for good reason.
Variety (opens in new tab) reports that The Midnight Club is the latest victim of Netflix’s cancelation axe, as the mystery-thriller series has been officially canned after just one season. Created by Mike Flanagan, the creative behind Netflix horror hits The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, the show spanned just 10 episodes in total but was intended to last much longer.
Based on the beloved Christopher Pike novel of the same name, The Midnight Club debuted on Netflix in October. The show follows a group of terminally ill youngsters living in a hospice who meet at Midnight to tell spooky stories. When one of the group dies, bizarre events begin to happen, and the dark history of the hospice comes to light.
The show earned a fairly strong critical reception with an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (opens in new tab). It also appeared to enjoy viewership success out of the gate peaking at No. 2 on the Netflix most-watched list in its first week. Although, this initially strong subscriber response may not have translated into long-term interest as the show quickly dropped out of the top 10. Plus, its 55% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is less than impressive.
While Flanagan’s previous Netflix projects were pitched as limited series, The Midnight Club was supposed to run for multiple seasons.“[The Midnight Club] is very much designed to continue. Pike has 80 books, so we have a lot of unused material to pull from. We also didn’t answer some of the bigger questions of the season. Those answers exist, but were meant to be for the next season,” said Flanagan at a press event in October.
Variety also notes the show’s cancelation comes in the wake of Flanagan and collaborator Trevor Macy exiting their multi-year deal with Netflix in order to work with Amazon Studios and presumably make content for Prime Video — which could be a factor.
Unfortunately, whether it’s the lack of long-term interest from subscribers or disappointment at losing a valued creative to a rival platformer, Netflix has decided that The Midnight Club season 2 won’t be happening. For now, The Midnight Club will be joining a new group: the list of Netflix canceled shows in 2022.
There’s a silver lining for Midnight Club members
Often when a show is canceled by Netflix the creator will take a pot shot at the streamer on social media, or might request fans launch a campaign to get the show revived (an effort that is almost always fruitless). However, Mike Flanagan has instead responded to the news that The Midnight Club is canceled in the perfect way.
The first season of the show ends with several unresolved mysteries, and there were also plenty of nods at events planned to occur in a second season. However, instead of leaving these plot threads hanging, Flanagan has put together a lengthy blog post detailing what would have happened in The Midnight Club season 2, and you can read it right here (opens in new tab).
I’m very disappointed that Netflix has decided not to pursue a second season of THE MIDNIGHT CLUB, but as promised, here are the answers to the unresolved mysteries of season 1 (along with our plans for season 2) https://t.co/GtNNVkgTX5December 2, 2022
For passionate fans of the show, this blog post likely won’t make up for the disappointment of its cancellation, but it’s an appreciated move from Flanagan nevertheless. Other Netflix shows canceled this year such as Messiah and Archive 81 ended on cliffhangers but viewers were given no resolution whatsoever. At least The Midnight Club fans have been given a little closure even if it’s not in the format that most would ideally want.
Sadly, Flanagan’s opting to explain future plans for the show in this way definitely suggests The Midnight Club isn’t being shopped to other networks or streaming platforms. The club can now be considered disbanded. While it’s a bittersweet blog post overall, as Flanagan notes: “It’s a shame we won’t get to make [The Midnight Club season 2], but it would be a bigger shame if you guys simply had to live with the unanswered questions and the cliffhanger ending.”
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