As if the sudden cancellation of their favorite show wasn't enough, fans of The OA have to grapple with another disappointment: there won't be a movie, either. Netflix announced earlier this month that the series would not be returning for a season 3 despite its previously announced five-season plan. Many took solace in rumors that the show would instead wrap up with a movie. However, Variety reports that is not happening.
A source said that creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij were in discussion with Netflix about giving the show the conclusion fans crave with a two-hour film, but realized that was not enough time to cover the material the three remaining seasons warrant. The cast has also reportedly been released from their contracts.
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"Zal and I are deeply sad not to finish this story," Marling wrote on Instagram after the cancellation news was first announced. "The first time I heard the news I had a good cry. So did one of our executives at Netflix who has been with the since the early days when we were sketching out Hap's basement on the floor of our production office in Queens. It's been an intense journey for everyone who worked on and cared about this story."
She posted another statement on Instagram last weekend following the massive outcry from disappointed fans.
"Your words and images move us deeply," she wrote. "Not because the show must continue, but because for some people its unexpected cancellation begs larger questions about the role of storytelling and its fate inside late capitalism’s push toward consolidation and economies of scale.”
“Netflix is a company that claims to value good and inclusive storytelling. They claim they are a socially conscious company. However, that’s all words, unless you do something that backs that up,” a cancellation protestor previously told Refinery29. “I’m doing a hunger strike as an act of internal violence. Anytime you come up against something, you have a choice...What’s the blood of a company? It’s money. If [I’m] willing to do a small act of internal violence, maybe it will show Netflix that it could do something that...maybe doesn’t benefit it financially.”
The movie may not be happening, but it's going to take a lot more than that for fans of The OA to give up.