Who’d want to be a streaming original series these days? After just one very well received season, Let the Right One In has been axed by Showtime, alongside several other shows.
Based on the surprise Swedish horror romance from 2008, this American television remake has positioned itself as more of a coming-of-age vampire story. The series saw mixed reviews from critics, but nearly universally positive reviews from general audiences.
The viewership no doubt played a part in Showtime’s decision to axe it, though the network shared its pride at the series and praised everyone involved for the end product. Horror series seem to be a tough one to get right, especially with Let the Right One In a cable series, and not having a popular streaming service attached.
Showtime is set to be completely merged into Paramount Plus, which CBS/Viacom also owns.
“We are extremely proud of this series and of the outstanding work by Demián Bichir, Madison Taylor Baez, Anika Noni Rose, our showrunner Andrew Hinderaker and his fellow executive producers, and the entire cast and crew. We would like to thank all of them and our partners at Tomorrow Studios, and we wish everyone the best going forward.”
Speculating entirely, but the decision to greenlight another remake (following a Matt Reeves remake film a decade ago), feels as though it may have been a response to Mike Flanagan’s vampire series Midnight Mass getting great traction on Netflix a year prior. The future still feels rooted in streaming, even if the streaming market is looking more and more like cable networks in 2003.
Let the Right One In is available to stream on FuboTV, and it’s unlikely to be the last time we hear the name come up again.