‘The OA’ Canceled at Netflix After Two Seasons

Just months after its second season premiere, Netflix announced Monday that it has canceled The OA. The Brit Marling co-created series debuted its second season on the streamer in March of this year.

“We are incredibly proud of the 16 mesmerizing chapters of The OA, and are grateful to Brit and Zal for sharing their audacious vision and for realizing it through their incredible artistry,” Cindy Holland, vice president of original content for Netflix, said in a statement to Variety. “We look forward to working with them again in the future, in this and perhaps many other dimensions.”

The Netflix original series follows Prairie, a young woman who returns home with the ability to see after having gone missing seven years’ prior. Calling herself “The OA,” she recruits five strangers for a secret mission.

Following its December 16, 2016 premiere, The OA was quickly picked up for a second season, which premiered more than two years later on March 22 of this year.

While Netflix does not typically release viewership data for its original series, The OA had risen to critical acclaim, with an 84 percent fresh rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Its first season received a 77 percent fresh rating, while Season 2 scored a 92 percent among critics and an 89 percent among viewers.

Speaking of the series’ future after its Netflix debut, Marling told The Hollywood Reporter said that “there is an end” to the series and that she hoped they’d have the chance to tell it.

“From the very beginning when we were on our own daydreaming a story, we definitely thought how can we construct something that, many seasons out, has a satisfying end? So there is an end and there is an answer to every riddle and nothing is done to just be sound and fury going nowhere,” she said. “It all goes somewhere. And as to whether or not we get to tell that, I certainly hope that we do. There is a place that season two already begins in our minds and a place in which it ends.”

Created and executive produced by Marling and ZalBatmanglij, who directed, the series starred Marling, Emory Cohen, Patrick Gibson, Jason Isaacs, Ian Alexander, Phyllis Smith, Brendan Meyer, Brandon Perea, Will Brill, Sharon Van Etten, Scott Wilson, Alice Krieg, and Paz Vega.

News of its upcoming end comes after the recent cancellations of Designated Survivor, Tuca & Bertie, and Trinkets at Netflix, which followed on the heels of a number of other controversial cancellations by the streaming giant.

Seasons 1 and 2 of The OA are available for streaming on Netflix.