After Love, Simon swept romantics off their feet in 2018, the sky was the limit for Hulu’s romantic comedy spin-off series Love, Victor. Skeptics predicted lukewarm results but the series surpassed expectations, eventually landing a solid 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes in its second season. So, it came somewhat as a shock when the show was canceled after its third season.
Love, Victor came out at a time when the world needed it most. The COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, everything on the news was dreary and drab, and people had unprecedented time on their hands.
Existing in the same universe as Love, Simon, which was based the young adult novel by Becky Albertalli, Love, Victor followed high schooler Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino) as he embarked on a similar journey of self-discovery.
Victor and his family move from Texas to Atlanta, but when he meets Benji (George Sear) everything he thought he knew about his sexualty comes into question. Thankfully, Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) is something of a legend at Creekwood High School so Victor reaches out to him on social media in the hopes of gleaming some advice from the now-graduated student.
Over the course of the series Victor learns to not only accept his sexuality but embrace it, in part thanks to his eclectic group of supportive friends and the growing support of his family.
Where the show really thrived, though, was its ability to color outside the lines and bring a more nuanced approach to the traditional coming out storyline, one that involved the sometimes challenging reality of coming out to religious Latinx parents. Over the three seasons, the show perfectly balanced it’s drama, comedy, and romance, making it a favorite among viewers looking to escape reality for a bit.
So, why was Love, Victor canceled after season 3?
We wish we had a better answer, but it looks like it simply came down to age.
At the end of the day Love, Victor was a story about a high school kid navigating high school situations. To carry the show beyond the walls of Creekwood High was not something the creators wanted.
Isaac Aptaker, one of the showrunners said:
I think the feeling for everyone was that we had really told the story we set out to tell. Victor has had this journey, and really in three distinct chapters
In speaking with Radio Times, Aptaker admitted that the cast was starting to climb the age ladder, so it felt like to right time to wrap up their storylines.
They’re now mid-20s playing high school [so] it feels like the show has grown up and gone on this journey… It felt like a really natural, full circle ending point.
If we’re being honest, it’s nice to see showrunners put their feet down – too many times we’re left with thirty-something year-olds playing seventeen year-olds on screen and the end result is often unbelievability and unrealistic expectations of what being in high school looks like. It’s nice to know that Victor’s storyline was only meant to last however long he was in high school.
All three seasons of Love, Victor are available to stream on Hulu.