Syfy announced plans to cancel acclaimed fantasy drama The Magicians after a brilliant five-season run.
Initially advertised as an adult version of Harry Potter, the show’s grown into a fantasy juggernaut, establishing itself as one of the best shows television has to offer.
The series is based on the trilogy of books by Lev Grossman by the same name.
The show embraces themes such as mental illness, abuse, depression, sexual assault, bullying, and addiction. The show’s a dark comedy at times, fantasy epic at times, and altogether just a brilliantly-written show.
The show’s in the middle of its fifth season, with the final episode airing on April 1, ironically on April Fool’s Day. Knowing the show, I’m holding out hope that this is the ultimate trick, Ember’s last laugh.
Although Syfy cancelled the show, show runners old out hope that someone might save The Magicians. With that said, the season finale’s written to give the show a series finale.
Show creators Sera Gamble and John McNamara told TVInsider that the cancellation came because the show became too expensive. Gamble goes on to say:
“We had the sense going into this season that Syfy, in particular as our first platform, was kind of hitting the point of ‘The cup is full and there’s no more room’.”
Initially the team tried to find a way to keep the show going with a different platform, but nothing was the right fit. McNamara says:
“We were aware that it was definitely not going to go forward in Syfy [when writing the finale] and that we were then going to want at least try to make a run at other platforms… none of them seemed in the end like a perfect financial or creative fit.”
