The Walt Disney Company has had to make some tough decisions, particularly in the last year.
Amid content purges, losses in expected revenue, and thousands of layoffs, it has been quite the year for The Walt Disney Company, led by CEO Bob Iger. While the Disney Parks & Experiences portion of the company continues to bring in major revenue, other forms of entertainment– including streaming, linear television, and full-length featured films at the box office– have seen their fair share of successes and failures along the way.
As the ever-evolving world continues to move ahead, Variety reports that two popular shows have been canceled permanently.
Freeform has canceled Good Trouble and Cruel Summer. The two shows, which saw extremely high viewership in previous seasons, are not moving forward with the television network, Variety confirmed.
Season 2 of the anthology series Cruel Summer delves into the tumultuous trajectory of a fervent teenage friendship. The narrative unfolds through three distinct timelines centered around Y2K, exploring the early camaraderie between Megan, Isabella, and Megan’s best friend Luke. The season unfolds with twists and turns, encapsulating a love triangle and a mysterious event that profoundly shapes their lives, as stated in the official description.
Following the success of its explosive inaugural season, which garnered an average multiplatform +35 viewership of 6.8 million per episode, Freeform swiftly renewed the series for Season 2 in 2021. Freeform President Tara Duncan deemed the renewal an “easy decision” in light of the show’s performance. However, creator Bert V. Royal departed from Cruel Summer and Freeform in July 2021, citing creative differences after the completion of the pilot in the prior year.
Despite the exit, Royal retained credit as the creator and executive producer for Season 1. In Season 2, Elle Triedman assumed the role of showrunner, succeeding Tia Napolitano, who remained an executive producer alongside Bill Purple, Jessica Biel, and Michelle Purple from Iron Ocean Productions. The series was supported by eOne.
The Season 2 cast featured Lexi Underwood, Sadie Stanley, Griffin Gluck, KaDee Strickland, Lisa Yamada, Sean Blakemore, and Paul Adelstein, which was a completely new cast compared to Season 1’s Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee, and Brooklyn Sudano.
The report did share that there is some positive news in this update. Good Trouble will have the opportunity to film additional scenes for a supersized series finale episode, allowing for a proper conclusion to the show. Good Trouble, a spinoff of The Fosters, follows the post-graduation adult lives of characters Callie and Mariana in downtown Los Angeles. Maia Mitchell and Cierra Ramirez led the cast, joined by Tommy Martinez, Emma Hunton, Sherry Cola, Zuri Adele, Beau Mirchoff, Josh Pence, Priscilla Quintana, and Bryan Craig.
Inside the Magic reached out to Disney for comment and will update this story following any updates given by the company.
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