As you’ve surely heard by now, Netflix has reached its unfortunate decision regarding the fate of Sense8. Despite an overwhelmingly positive reaction to May’s premiere, the show’s second season will indeed be its last. Yes, it’s true, the series was cancelled a few months back and to date, no one has stepped in to save it.
First hatched by renown filmmakers Lana and Lilly Wachowski – along with co-creator J. Michael Straczynski – Sense8 began life in 2015, when Netflix had already established a string of bankable heavyweights in the vein of House of Cards and female-fronted hit Orange is the New Black. Faced with near-insurmountable odds, the cult sci-fi series managed to carve out an audience to call its own, even if the viewing figures for season 2 didn’t warrant a renewal.
A big-budget project in the vein of Sense8 – coupled with its lengthy production process and costly VFX – meant that the series really needed to hit the big leagues in order to be considered a success. And unfortunately, it never quite reached the dizzying heights of some of the streaming service’s other offerings, the result of which is a cancellation that many will no doubt consider to be premature.
But as Lana Wachowski revealed not too long ago, fan support resurrected Sense8 from the brink – somewhat – and come 2018, viewers can look forward to welcoming the likes of Toby Onwumere, Doona Bae, Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai, Tuppence Middleton, Max Riemelt, Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Brian J. Smith back onto the small screen for what will be the show’s final outing. Or will it?
Though no one has stepped in to save it just yet, an unlikely company has voiced their interest today in possibly rescuing Sense8 and bringing us a third season. That’d be adult website xHamster, whose president, Alex Hawkins, has penned a letter to the Wachowskis letting them know he’d like to produce more episodes for the series – which you can check out below.
While this is certainly an interesting and exciting development, we still wouldn’t hold our breath for a third season. For one, something like this would be completely unprecedented, not to mention that we aren’t even sure if xHamster can truly afford to make a show like Sense8. Or at least, afford to make it the right way. Its huge production budget is what forced Netflix to cut it in the first place and while xHamster no doubt has money, do they have enough to back something like this?
That remains to be seen, but we can at least look forward to the show’s finale (for now), which arrives on Netflix at some point next year.
