After delaying its original March 7th premiere in the wake of the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Paramount Network has now announced that it has decided against airing the small screen reboot of Heathers.
According to THR, the network “didn’t feel comfortable” airing the series in the current climate, given that it takes place in a high school and contains violent scenes.
“This is a high school show, we’re blowing up the school, there are guns in the school, it’s a satire and there are moments of teachers having guns,” said Keith Cox, president of development and production at Paramount. “It’s hitting on so many hot topics. This company can’t be speaking out of both sides of its mouth, saying the youth movement is important for us and we’ve done all these wonderful things to support that and at the same time, we’re putting on a show that we’re not comfortable with. The combination of a high school show with these very dark moments didn’t feel right.”
The series has been described as “a pitch-black comedy anthology series that is set in in the present day with ‘good girl’ Veronica Sawyer dealing with a very different but equally vicious group of ‘Heathers.’”
Production on the first season of Heathers has already been fully completed and a writers room has almost completed work on a second season. As such, the series is now being shopped to other potential outlets, so may yet make it to the screen.
