Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell’s cand-colored, inter-dimensional existentialist trip has come to an end: Netflix has cancelled adult animated series The Midnight Gospel, despite largely positive critical and audience response. The news was shared on Twitter by Trussell, a comedian, writer and actor (The Duncan Trussell Family Hour) who teamed up with Adventure Time maverick Ward to create the series.
A fan asked @duncantrussell, “Are there plans for any more episodes of Midnight Gospel? I would love to see more.”
He answered, “The Midnight Gospel was cancelled by Netflix.” Trussell added in the thread, “In my mind, there’s one more season but the sentient glass ‘deciding’ cube they keep in their catacombs vibrated ‘Now more.’ And it’s hard to argue with a cube.”
“PS I’m so lucky that the folks at Netflix rolled the dice and let us make such a strange show. They were supremely supportive all the way through and I’ll love them forever for it.”
The Midnight Gospel joins several other quirky, creator-driven Netflix animation projects either not returning or shut down in development, including CentaurWorld, Ava DuVernay’s Wings of Fire adaptation, Jeff King’s Dino Daycare (Chris Nee’s kids’ slate), Meghan Markle’s Pearl and Jaydeep Hasrajani’s Boons and Curses.
The streamer has enacted a flurry of cost-cutting measures including layoffs across the animation division and the company as a whole after reporting the loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter and the anticipated loss of 2 million more, fueling Netflix’s first major stock price drop in a decade.
Animated by Titmouse, the eight-episode series premiered appropriately on April 20, 2020 (4/20), bringing viewers into the surreal, darkly comic, suprisingly deep sci-fi universe of the Chromatic Ribbon to tag along with Clancy, a “spacecaster,” on his journeys through his multiverrse simulator to interview beings on other worlds.
Trussell led the voice cast as Clancy, with recurring voices from Phil Hendrie, Stephen Root, Maria Bamford, Doug Lussnehop, Joey “Coco” Diaz, Christina P., Steve Little and Johnny Pemberton. The diverse guest star list included Pauly Shore, Natasha Leggero, Drew Pinsky, YouTube mortician Caitlin Doughty and spiritual leader Ram Dass.
You can read more about the show in Animation Magazine‘s exclusive interview with Ward and Trussell here.
[H/T whats-on-netflix.com]
