All five seasons of Queen of the South are available on Netflix, granting the show an even wider audience than it had when it originally aired on USA Network. There is some bad news for viewers just discovering the show now though. It was canceled in March 2021, a month before the fifth season began airing. The series finale aired on USA on June 9, 2021, and it finished with 62 episodes.
Queen of the South was canceled at a time when NBCUniversal was slicing the number of original scripted shows produced exclusively for USA Network. The company’s new strategy has been to make USA a home for reality programming and developing scripted projects for Peacock. NBCUniversal’s Universal Content Productions also produced the series with 20th Century Fox Television, which Disney absorbed and transformed into 20th Television.
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“For five incredible seasons, Queen of the South has captivated us with brilliant storytelling and bold, powerful characters,” Frances Berwick, NBCU Chairman of Entertainment Networks, told The Hollywood Reporter in March 2021. “This series broke boundaries for the genre, and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with this incredible team of creators, cast, and crew along with our studio partners at 20th Television and UCP. As we close this final chapter, we look forward to a great season culminating in a finale that will give our fans the ending they deserve.”
The show was canceled on good terms with executive producers Dailyn Rodriguez, Ben Lobato, and David Friendly since they were given the opportunity to write the end they wanted. “Queen of the South began shooting in Mexico City, brought us to faraway places like Malta and Colombia, and finally landed in New Orleans,” the producers said. “We cannot wait to share the explosive final season with our devoted fans. And, of course, we could not have made this show without the talented and tireless Alice Braga, who brought our queen to life.”
Queen of the South was based on the telenovela La Reina del Sur (which also happens to be on Netflix) by Arturo Perez-Reverte and developed by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller. Alice Braga starred as Teresa Mendoza, who flees from Mexico to the U.S. after her boyfriend is murdered. Once she is in the U.S., she becomes entrenched in a criminal organization and is chased by a cartel boss’ wife. Braga, who recently starred in The Suicide Squad, also served as an executive producer. The rest of the main cast included Peter Gadiot, Veronica Falcon, Hemky Madera, Joaquin de Almeida, Justina Machado, Molly Burnett, Gerardo Taracena, Jon-Michael Ecker, Nick Sagar, Yancey Arias, Alfonso Herrera, and David Andrews.
