Despite being renewed and preparing for a second season, Netflix cancelled I Am Not Okay With This after just one season earlier this year, and now the series showrunner Jonathan Entwistle has opened up about why the series was scrapped.
In an interview with Insider, Entwistle detailed the various factors that played into the show’s cancellation including an impending writers’ strike, the ongoing global health crisis, and financial concerns.
“There was obviously the impending writers’ strike, which was definitely a huge thing at Netflix,” Entwistle said. “We were working almost week to week, not knowing how long it was going to last before somebody pulled the trigger on something that would have an effect [on us].”
“When the pandemic hit, we moved out of the office and there was definitely a shift within Netflix,” Entwistle continued. “We finished the scripts, and it was hard work in the Zoom-writer’s-room. No writer tells you those things are good. It’s not good.”
“I think I’ve seen a few people talking and the figures are about right: It’s about anywhere between $5 to $10 million per season of television for the PPE, and for the testing, and for the systematic changes with which to make it safer,” he explained.
“I think that one of the problems we faced with I Am Not Okay With This is that in many ways I considered it to be a smaller, niche show and they considered it to be a replacement for Stranger Things,” Entwistle said. “I do think when they were looking at all the finances, the show was more expensive than they figured it was worth doing.”
Unfortunately for the cast, crew and the show’s fans, the series ended on a major cliffhanger which will remain unresolved due to the cancellation, however, Entwistle revealed that he did ask to recut the series finale but Netflix declined.
“And in fact, when the show was cancelled, I went back to Netflix and said, ‘Hey, can you let me recut the last two shots so that there’s no dialogue and it just looks like a man appears to her?’ … but they wouldn’t let me,” he said.
I Am Not Okay With This follows a teenage girl who’s navigating the trials and tribulations of high school, all while dealing with the complexities of her family, her budding sexuality, and mysterious superpowers just beginning to awaken deep within her. Sophia Lillis leads the cast with her It co-star Wyatt Oleff along with Sofia Bryant, Richard Ellis, Kathleen Rose Perkins, and Aidan Wojtak-Hissong.
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