Netflix has canceled Warrior Nun after two seasons, leading to speculation about whether the streaming service set the show up to fail. Warrior Nun was renewed for a second season just a month after its debut on Netflix, despite a mixed reception and middling reviews. Warrior Nun season 2, however, debuted to rave reviews in November 2022, earning a critics score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, accompanied by a 99% audience score. Now, the news has broken that Netflix has canceled Warrior Nun after two seasons, through a tweet posted by the show’s creator, Simon Barry.
Since Warrior Nun’s cancelation was announced by Simon Barry, the hashtag #SaveWarriorNun has been trending on multiple social media platforms, proving the scale and devotion of its fanbase. While Netflix often cites viewership numbers as the main reason for the decision to cancel or renew certain shows, Warrior Nun season 2 spent three weeks in Netflix’s Weekly Top 10 charts for English-language shows, peaking at slot number five, and it was viewed over 66 million hours globally by November 27, just 17 days after its release. Warrior Nun proved to be a successful comic book adaptation, making it hard to understand why Netflix would decide to cancel it now.
Warrior Nun Season 2's Release Date Made It Hard For It To Compete
When Netflix suddenly released the final official trailer for Warrior Nun season 2 in October and announced that the sophomore season would premiere just a month later, many were surprised but relieved that there was finally some concrete news. However, November was a busy month for Netflix releases, and Warrior Nun season 2 was sandwiched in between some heavyweight titles. These included major Netflix Originals like The Crown season 5, 1899 season 1, Dead Like Me season 3, and Wednesday season 1, which was based on the massive Addams Family IP. That is a slate hard enough for any show to compete with, let alone one that had next to no marketing support.
As Netflix knew that they were releasing multiple big titles in November, it’s a wonder why they added Warrior Nun to an already busy queue – especially since their initial release announcement only mentioned “this winter,” meaning there was no set deadline. Shows like The Crown and Tim Burton's Wednesday were released with built-in audiences, and yet Netflix’s marketing efforts seemed entirely focused on those titles, producing massive billboard campaigns and pushing them as recommendations constantly. Wednesday and Warrior Nun also have similar target groups, making it difficult to comprehend why Netflix would force people to choose between the two, when Warrior Nun could just as easily have been released a few months later, giving it time to breathe.
Warrior Nun's Cancelation Continues A Netflix Trend
Unfortunately, Netflix is well-known for canceling shows before they’ve had a chance to finish their story and live up to their potential, and Warrior Nun seems to be the latest casualty in the streaming wars. At the moment, it seems that unless a Netflix original breaks records, like Wednesday, Stranger Things, or Monster: Dahmer, Netflix is overly reluctant to give anything a real chance. But without proper marketing efforts, it takes time for a series to find its audience, and Warrior Nun is certainly a prime example of a show that found its demographic despite all the odds being stacked against it.
Additionally, and perhaps more sinisterly, there may be another trend in Netflix’s cancelation decisions. Warrior Nun season 2 not only focused on the supernatural but the blossoming relationship between Ava and Beatrice, too – a well-written and complex romance between two young women taking place while the world was burning down around them. While their relationship wasn’t the main focus of the show, it was certainly an important part of its solid character writing, and now Warrior Nun is another in a long line of canceled Netflix shows that featured sapphic relationships, such as First Kill, Everything Sucks!, and Glow. Warrior Nun’s cancelation on Netflix is certainly disappointing, but sadly, not all that surprising.