Amazon has decided to not order a second season of their straight-to-series adaptation of the British series, Utopia.
The show was written by Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn and starred John Cusack, Sasha Lane, Jessica Rothe, and Rainn Wilson. The series debuted on September 25 to so-so reviews from critics and the show never really gained traction like other series on the streamer. A U.S. version of the 2013-14 British series Utopia, created by Dennis Kelly and produced by Endemol Shine Group’s UK production studio Kudos, was previously in the works at HBO in 2015 with David Fincher and Flynn. (Fincher, who had been originally attached to direct and executive produce, brought on Flynn to write the series having just worked with her on the feature Gone Girl, which he helmed from a script she had penned based on her book.) The series was in pre-production, and Fincher and Flynn had been rehearsing with the cast that included Rooney Mara, Colm Feore, Eric McCormack, Dallas Roberts, and Jason Ritter but it all unraveled when Fincher and HBO couldn’t agree on the budget for the series.
The Amazon adaptation follows a group of young adults who meet online that are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a near-mythical cult underground graphic novel. Within the comic’s pages, they discover the conspiracy theories that may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique, and ironic position of saving the world.
