The Wilds was canceled by Amazon Studios after two seasons.
According to various media, including Deadline (opens in new tab) and Variety (opens in new tab), Amazon dropped the popular Prime Video show less than three months after the release of its second season. Deadline suggests that the show’s main cast members were not informed of the decision until Thursday, July 28. At the time of writing, though, the main cast members have yet to publicly comment on the matter.
The news of The Wilds’ cancellation is sure to disappoint fans of the young adult (YA) survival drama series. The production of Prime Video is one of the highest rated original series on the Amazon streaming platform, with its first season 92% certified fresh grade (opens in new tab) on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, The Wilds season two did just as well; the last installment of the show winning a 85% score on the same site (opens in new tab). Most IMDB.com (opens in new tab)The Wilds has amassed an average score of 7.2 out of 10 out of nearly 20,000 user reviews.
No official reason has been given for the show’s cancellation, but Deadline claims that moderate reaction to The Wilds season 2 led to its downfall. The series garnered critical acclaim after the release of its first season in December 2020, with its Lost and Castaway-style narrative and excellent cast helping to attract newcomers to the Amazon streaming service.
However, with similarly positioned YA series such as the hit show Yellowjackets starting to appear on its turf, along with the pandemic-induced release date delay, it appears The Wilds didn’t have the tools to create a save boat. -lives to keep him afloat.
We’ve reached out to Amazon Studios for official comment on the cancellation of The Wilds and will update this article if we receive a response.
Review: Adrift on the High Seas of Streaming
The cancellation of The Wilds is a pivotal moment in the history of Amazon Studios.
The series was the first young adult project to be released on Prime Video, and thanks to its relative success, it paved the way for other YA shows to roll off the Amazon production line. Panic, the failed remake of Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, Alex Rider and The Summer I Turned Pretty owe their existence to The Wilds, which paved the way for these series to see the light of day.
With Amazon pulling back the curtain on The Wilds, it’s consigning one of its pioneering shows to the streaming history books – and some industry experts and fans may see this as a watershed moment for Prime Video.
Like this? Well, Amazon isn’t exactly moving away from YA-developed series, but it’s certainly leaning more towards more popular and profitable genres.
For one, Amazon continues to expand its original superhero offerings to its subscriber base. A fourth season of The Boys, plus a live-action spin-off series, are in the works. Season 2 of Invincible is currently in development, while a new original Samaritan movie is set to release in late August.
Meanwhile, Amazon is pushing harder into fantasy genre territory. A second season of The Wheel of Time is on the way, while a third season was announced at Comic-Con 2022. Carnival Row, Prime Video’s first original fantasy series, will also get a second season at some point. Oh, and there’s a little-known show called The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – the most expensive TV series ever made – coming exclusively to Prime Video on September 2nd.
Of course, there will always be an audience for YA content on Prime Video, so it’s likely that Amazon will continue to commission projects of this nature as long as they look intriguing enough. But there’s no doubt that the studio is pumping money into more popular genres with larger fan bases, which can be a dangerous move to make.
Amazon will not want to alienate its young adult/teenager audience by failing to deliver content specifically targeted to that audience. If that happens, it could be that viewers ditch it — much like Amazon ditched The Wilds — for other streamers like Netflix, whose YA catalog includes hit shows like Shadow and Bone, Riverdale, and Heartstopper. Time will tell whether canceling The Wilds was the right decision or not.
For more Prime Video-based content, check out the platform’s new user-friendly interface or read about a new feature Prime Video just added – one that Netflix hasn’t implemented yet.