Amazon Freevee Revives Canceled Showtime Series for Season 2
Amazon's Freevee platform, previously known as IMDb TV, rescued American Rust Thursday. Showtime canceled the Jeff Daniels-starring crime drama after just one season in January. Daniels and Maura Tierney will return for the second season.
American Rust is based on Philipp Meyer's novel of the same name. Daniels plays Del Harris, a police chief in a Rust Belt Pennsylvania town. In the first season, his career is compromised when the son of the woman he loves, Grace Poe (Tierney) is accused of murder. Del has to decide between following the law or protecting Grace's son. The rest of the Season 1 main cast included Bill Camp, David Alvarez, Julia Mayorga, Alex Neustaedter, Mark Pellegrino, and Rob Yang.
"I'm grateful to Amazon Freevee for giving us the chance to make Season Two of American Rust," Daniels said in a statement. "Set inside a struggling American small town, our authentic, realistically told story is built for streaming. The movies they don't make anymore are being made as series at places like Amazon Freevee. It's where I want to be."
Production on Season 2 will start later this year. Daniels is an executive producer on the show with Dan Futterman, Adam Rapp, Katie O'Connell Marsh, Elissa Ellis, Paul Martino, and Michael De Luca. The show is produced by Boat Rocker Studios.
"American Rust is exactly the type of gritty and engaging storytelling Amazon Freevee audiences love, and we could not be more excited to bring this prestige series to our customers, free of charge," Lauren Anderson and Ryan Pirozzi, co-heads of content and programming at Amazon Freevee, said in a statement. "We can't wait to dive in with Boat Rocker and Dan Futterman to continue the story that intrigued audiences during the first season, and to see the evolution of characters so expertly portrayed by Jeff and Maura in this next chapter."
American Rust's revival is a surprise. The first season aired in fall 2021 and barely registered, earning mostly negative reviews. It was one of three shows Showtime canceled in January, alongside Work in Progress and Black Monday. Daniels also quickly found another gig, joining Netflix's limited series A Man in Full, based on Tom Wolfe's novel and adapted by David E. Kelley.
Freevee is Amazon's free streaming platform. The company has been trying to build up original content for the platform since renaming it. Troppo, Bosch: Legacy, Pretty Hard Cases, Bug Out, and Judith Scheindlin's Judy Justice are also available on Freevee. The Kate Walsh-starring comedy Sprung is in development.