A new book alleges that Lovecraft Country was canceled due to a toxic and hostile work environment. Based on Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country premiered in August 2020. It ran for ten episodes, beginning with Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he joined up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. The series delved deep into supernatural and sci-fi elements along the way, as the characters encountered strange creatures and fought for their survival.

Even though Lovecraft Country primarily works as a self-contained limited series, there were rumors that a second installment wasn’t far behind. HBO’s president of programming Casey Bloys had seemed to confirm that, in February, when he noted that showrunner Misha Green was in the early stages of writing Lovecraft Country season 2. Critics and fans alike responded favorably to the show praising the performances of a cast that included Aunjanue Ellis, Wunmi Mosaku, Abbey Lee, Jamie Chung, Jada Harris, and the late Michael K. Williams. That’s why it came as a shock, back in July, when HBO reversed course and announced that there would be no more new episodes of the series.

Related: Lovecraft Country Season 1 Finale: Every Major Reveal & Ending Twist Explained

Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, a new oral history on the network by author James Andrew Miller, alleges that Lovecraft Country was canceled due to a “toxic” and “hostile” work environment created by Green as the showrunner, which led other writers not to want to work with her. Promoting the book in an interview with THR, Miller elaborated on those allegations. He noted the decision not to move forward with season 2 was a sad one. His quote is below.

“Lovecraft was a beautiful show in terms of its look, its narrative and what I would also consider to be an exceptional marriage of storytelling and music. When the show got canceled, there were two predominant explanations out there. One was it had gotten too expensive. The second was there wasn’t a compelling vision for the next season. It turns out neither was the real reason. I had several sources within HBO and elsewhere — people who worked on the show and people who represented people on the show — who said the environment on the show was not a healthy one. For HBO, it was a double-down on sadness — not only is it losing a show that was such an outlier in terms of what it was trying to say, but then to have a Black showrunner — and a female Black showrunner — is not something that happens every day, and people were incredibly excited about that. So, again, the word I come back to is “sadness” that it was not able to continue.”

Jonathan Majors Lovecraft Country

Green, who has since signed an overall deal with Apple, declined to comment on the story. In the past, she offered some clues about what Lovecraft Country season 2 might’ve consisted of had it moved forward. Expressing her thanks to fans for being vocal about their desire for the series to return, Green explained that the show would have introduced zombies and that it would have been titled Lovecraft Country: Supremacy.

HBO has fostered a reputation for being creator-friendly, sticking with its programs even as it struggles to find a tone or much of a viewing audience. Because of this, and because of the lack of concrete reasoning behind the cancellation, speculation about what went on behind the scenes has been quick to form. This is reflected in recent remarks by Lovecraft Country star Vance, who wondered why such a promising show was abruptly cut short. Others have noted the large budget, while some argued that the narrative flaws of the initial ten episodes played a factor in its sudden end. These latest claims will continue to keep observers wondering just what happened.

More: Why Lovecraft Country Was Cancelled (& What Season 2 Would’ve Been About)

Source: THR