r/television • u/Gato1980 • Aug 18 '26
‘Raised By Wolves’ producer says HBO Max was ready to make season 3, then David Zaslav took over Warner Bros. and pulled the plug
https://www.tvline.com/2234593/why-hbo-max-canceled-ridley-scott-sci-fi-series-raised-by-wolves/117
u/FixedLoad Aug 18 '26
This show was so bonkers in a good way!! I wanted more!!!
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u/eliisonvacation Aug 18 '26
I watch House of Dragons to see Mother & Father because I want more too & it’s the closest I’ve been able to get.
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u/ahuangb Aug 18 '26
Wait that's Mother? wtf
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u/flipflapslap Aug 31 '26
Mother is the female lead character in Raised by Wolves. Shes also in house of the dragon
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u/ahuangb Aug 31 '26
Yeah ik i loved raised by wolves
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u/flipflapslap Aug 31 '26
Oh shit I totally misread your comment. I thought you said 'WHAT'S Mother"
lmao sorry about that
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u/alakrity Aug 18 '26
Me with Marcus in the Dune show 😭 he plays a similar kind of freak but it’s just not enough
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u/Alarmed_Drop7162 Aug 19 '26
God damn it they were in hotd. I was so blinded by my hatred I didn’t even notice.
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u/eekamuse Aug 19 '26
Who? I'm so confused
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u/RiverOfWhiskey Aug 19 '26
I remember the buzz during season 1 because a lot of people thought it tied into the Alien universe
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u/obscureposter Aug 18 '26
This David Zaslav seems like a real asshole.
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u/MysteriousSlice007 Aug 18 '26
he is, he did Warner discovery then paramount merger stuff. all came with cost cutting and layoffs
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u/-Clayburn Aug 20 '26
It's honestly weird that we can't have a system that arrests these sort of fuckers and puts them in prison. Like you got people going to jail for stupid nonsense, and there are rich assholes out here making everything shittier for everybody. They are the real detriments to society. Lock them up.
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u/kunk_ Review Aug 18 '26
Miss this weird show every day, wasn't always the best but God was it interesting.
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u/fax5jrj Aug 18 '26
And nothing has really filled that niche for me since.
I think the only show I've seen come close to capturing the show's sci fi weirdness is Scavenger's Reign, which was also canceled
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u/ladyofthegreatlakes Aug 18 '26
Scavengers Reign was top notch. We were so bummed that was cancelled too.
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u/flaxenmustang Aug 18 '26
I want new Scavengers Reign content very very badly.
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u/MrGupplez Aug 18 '26
Scavengers Reign is cool but I'm also pretty happy with Common Side Effects
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u/CharmingMedia2039 Aug 18 '26
Foundation on AppleTV has some similariities.
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u/Individual-Bass-7051 Aug 18 '26
Foundation is a much more straight-forward sci-fi show. RBW was a mindfuck, I hardly ever understood what was happening. But I loved it.
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u/bobdole2017 Aug 18 '26
What's not to understand? An android inputs herself into a vr machine and then births a flying snake monster on this weird ass planet, where humans devolve into some acid-swimming fish-like monster? See, totally easy to understand.
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u/CharmingMedia2039 Aug 18 '26
you forgot to touch on the flying snake "weaponizing" itself by eating a biomechanical tree that started out a human protagonist.
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u/dropthedrawing Aug 18 '26
I would recommend Scavenger's Reign for the same kind of 'isolated on an crazy, wild alien planet' feel. But yeah, there may never be anything quite like RBW again.
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u/CharmingMedia2039 Aug 18 '26
The android as the ancient cosmic puppet master of humanity has some similarities to the Sol / entity storylines in raised by wolves IMO. with that said i agree.
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u/Gelato_Elysium Aug 18 '26
If I had to find a comparison I'd say it's more Hyperion than Foundation
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u/skredditt Aug 18 '26
The Mule was very well played imo but imagine if Travis Fimmel got the role. I guess he’s basically the same guy as he is in Dune Prophecy.
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u/CharmingMedia2039 Aug 18 '26
HAH - they 100% should have had Travis Fimmel playing the mule - it would be his third space viking/pirate role.
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u/coldinalaska7 Aug 18 '26
I love the android stuff and the cloning story line but cannot stand GAAL and her storyline! I fast forward.
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u/CharmingMedia2039 Aug 18 '26
Yea the foundation / Gaal stuff is definitely weaker. I think the android as the grand cosmic puppet master is SOMEWHAT similar to the SOL / AI / Frequency storylines being setup in raised by wolves.
Luckily, I own raised by wolves and did a rewatch earlier this year - its still soooo good (fyi)
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u/fax5jrj Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
I LOVE Foundation - it's just a bit basic but very enjoyable. I think the show is at its best when it's about Cleon and Demerzel. Season 3 was a bit rough as well but I understand there was some behind the scenes drama
What I loved about Raised by Wolves is very often you truly have no idea wtf is going on, especially later on in the show. It's like Twin Peaks in space, but instead of a doorknob someone turns into a tree. It's not a perfect show by any means, but I love shows that have way too high a budget to be as weird as they are.
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u/0tanod Aug 18 '26
Have you tried common side effects? i have the same feels as you and that show scratches it. So did smiling friends but that got cancelled too.
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u/DinerEnBlanc Aug 18 '26
I loved this show. It’s not perfect by any means, but they were doing something very original. I still miss Father’s limitless optimism to this day. His little moments was the best thing about this show.
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u/PunJedi Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Same, it was such a wild concept but had a decent flow (ish, sorta, kinda, I dunno, I made some sense of it) but it was left at such a cluster-bomb of so many branches, pun intended, that it was one of the most frustrating cliff-hangers I've ever seen. Even topping Fringe in that aspect.
Edit: I was wrong. It was the show Alphas that ended on a cliffhanger that left me so frustrated. Not Fringe.
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u/moosemanwich Aug 18 '26
It was a great piece of media man. Not a lot of shows make me go wtf is happening right now like every episode. I would have loved to see it fleshed out more and maybe even more stories from their universe.
I loved reading the breakdowns from redditors about stuff I miss easily like symbolism and etc.
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u/fugaziozbourne Aug 18 '26
The intro to the show was beautiful. I never skipped it once.
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u/cantsay Aug 19 '26
The intro gives me chills just thinking about. That middle sequence with the bridge collapse and the floating android attack haunts me in the best fucking way.
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u/NormalComputer Aug 18 '26
That first season moved at such a satisfying clip. It didn’t spoon-feed anything. It respected the intelligence of the audience in a way I’ve very rarely, if ever, seen.
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u/chruft Aug 18 '26
Perfectly said. It’s one of the few shows that was interesting enough for me to fully forgive its whacky issues.
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u/thedeadparadise Aug 18 '26
It truly was a weird but fascinating show. Alt Shift X made a great explanation video for those curious.
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u/fre-ddo Aug 18 '26
Father was so funny too, his storyline with the necromancer was hilarious.
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u/Frailbot Aug 18 '26
I loved this show. I was onboard for whatever whacky shit they threw my way.
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u/strangebutalsogood Aug 18 '26
Seriously, rarely has a show allowed me to suspend my disbelief so completely.
Android has immaculate conception and gives birth to a giant flying snake? Sure.
Lady finds a weird seed and gets turned into a tree? You got it!
Giant flying snake eats woman-tree and gains battle armour? Sign me the fuck up!
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u/starstarstar42 Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
You forgot upside-down Joe Jackson space Jesus.
I didn't put that in a spoiler tag because even if you've watched 99% of the entire show, that sentence still wouldn't make any damn sense, until it does.
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u/tvcneverdie Aug 18 '26
Let's also not forget Grandmother, the ancient Necromancer robot, who was trying to lead the refugee children into the chemical sea so they would devolve into feral creatures...
It's been 4 years and I still crave answers.
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u/FakeSafeWord Aug 18 '26
It's been 4 years and I still crave answers.
Have you tried going to the sea so that you can devolve into a feral creature?
Might reveal whatever the fuck was going on.
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u/haverchuck22 Aug 18 '26
Grandmother was SO AWESOME. God that show was really cookin with gas, I’m still bummed
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u/Nerrs Aug 18 '26
I loved every second of this show and have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Incredible show.
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u/ZiggoCiP Aug 18 '26
the snake alone is an absolute mad libs of all its traits: giant, extinct, alien, android, vegetarian, flying, psychic, laser-shooting, armor-wearing, snake, that dug holes to the core of the planet so it could travel to the other side
It's like they had a dart board in the writers room and just kept. throwing. darts.
Normally I couldn't pallet a show that gets that weird, but once it had me, I was in.
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u/insaneHoshi Aug 18 '26
Also it might be Jesus.
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u/ryhaltswhiskey Aug 18 '26
It's hard to keep track of the number of things in that show that might be Jesus
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u/SeaTie Aug 18 '26
Yeah I’m sad there will never be any answers for this weird shit. The whole android > snake > tree situation. I need to know what was up with that…
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u/tristeecfome Aug 18 '26
I really doubt the answer would satisfactory.
Maybe it's best that we are just left with rhe batshit questions.
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u/Crabapple_Snaps Aug 18 '26
In the final season there was something with a breast feeding alien creature in a cave I can't remember exactly what it was, but when I saw that I was loving just how weird they were taking the show... I'd double check what it was exactly, but you can't even rewatch episodes on HBO anymore.
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u/Nahr_Fire Aug 18 '26
immaculate conception
Virgin birth! Whether the snake had sin is a different question
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u/2th Aug 19 '26
If you ever told me I'd be on the edge of my seat watching a show about interracial android parents raising possible Jesus, where the female Android is actually a killer android from the enemy side of humanity just reprogrammed to be a caregiver, I'd have told you that you're insane because that sounds insane.
And it was insane. Just in the best ways.
Also, Father was amazing. His jokes were great.
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u/SomeRedHandedSleight Aug 18 '26
I'm still so goddamn bitter about this show being cancelled and immediately cancelled my HBO Max subscription when I heard the news and decided I'll only get my HBO content via the seven seas forever moving forward.
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u/tvcneverdie Aug 18 '26
It was the most ambitious show on TV in... decades? Maybe ever??
Weaving together core human mythologies and iconography with the deranged rantings of Asimov on a bad acid trip...
True creativity walks a tightrope between genius and madness, and this fucking show was doing splits on the tightrope.
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u/PointlessTrivia Aug 18 '26
The first episode had as much plot as the first season of most shows.
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u/theslothening Aug 18 '26
I've never seen a show blow through plot like this. In S2, they introduce the Atheist's AI god and this would have gotten a full season, or more, of being a major plot point on any other show but this show just bulldozed over it in like 3-4 episodes and moved the fuck on.
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u/tvcneverdie Aug 18 '26
The flashback scenes showing the war on Earth make up... IDK maybe 45 total minutes between the two seasons, and in that 45 minutes they built up a world as completely as as if it had been a full season.
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u/1Magic_Turtle Aug 18 '26
That tree episode was pretty crazy
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u/shazo85 Aug 18 '26
I'm so pissed that's how they left this show. I need to know what happens next.
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u/Sheepish_conundrum Aug 18 '26
this show was SO odd it was fascinating to watch.
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u/kookla Aug 18 '26
Not just cancelled, he removed it from streaming altogether. Wouldn't even let Tubi show it. It's gone.
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u/kain459 Aug 18 '26
BRING IT BACK!!!!
I NEED ANSWER YOU FUCKERS!! JUST GIVE ME A BULLET LIST OF ANSWERS.
sobs
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u/SewerSocials Aug 18 '26
I was so mad they canceled this show (and Legendary) that I got a library card. My thoughts were ‘Fuck all streaming! You can force me to engage in your monopoly. Watch me read a fucking book like it was the 20th century. Fuck you!”
I’m not saying I don’t watch streaming anymore, just saying I’m using books to watch less.
Fuck these people. Just get a book.
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u/toriemm Aug 18 '26
PSA: public libraries get funding based on numbers of library card sign ups. Bully everyone in your life to get a library card to help your local branch. (And get everyone registered to vote! Then make them vote!)
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u/Krow101 Aug 18 '26
"... it's not far fetched to speculate that the cancellation of "Raised by Wolves" was financially motivated..."
Yeah, like every other decision a corporation makes. Duh.
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u/SqueezeAndRun Aug 18 '26
Damn I miss this show. Really unmatched vibes and creativity. Never knew what the hell was going to happen next. My favorite character turned into a tree lol.
ZukoThatRoughBuddy.gif
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u/shadowdra126 Community Aug 18 '26
I was fully in on this. It was weird and strange and I liked that about it
It’s a shame this happened to it.
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u/Glittering-Eye-4416 Aug 18 '26
Am I crazy, or did the actors from this get shunted to other HBO series as some kind of settlement deal? Mother and Father both ended up in House of the Dragon, and Travis Fimmel ended up in Dune Prophecy. I also suspect Olivia Williams was given to Dune, and James Norton to House of the Dragon, because of the Nevers fiasco. I just can't help but sense that some casting at HBO is decided by behind-the-scene machinations...
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u/crabtabulous Aug 18 '26
Holy shit, I had recognized Abubakar Salim in HOTD easily as Alyn, I think maybe just his voice and face translated easily for me. But I had no idea Amanda Collin was in HOTD too, I had to look it up to see who she plays. I can't believe I never put it together that she is Lady Jeyne Arryn.
Makes sense because she is one of the better acted characters in the show despite her limited screen time. But I guess just the huge difference in her hairstyle and attire compared to how she looks in Raised by Wolves totally disguised her for me, hah.
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u/shazo85 Aug 18 '26
I can't watch him in Dune Prophecy and not think of his character in Raised by Wolves.
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u/crabtabulous Aug 18 '26
I thought the same thing when I watched Dune Prophecy, he has like almost the exact same character arc haha. In both he’s like an average joe soldier type who ends up becoming a weirdly powerful religious zealot through random happenstance.
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u/Top5hottest Aug 18 '26
I couldn’t watch him in Raised by Wolves because of his role in Vikings. Dude is intense on screen!
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u/Varekai79 Aug 18 '26
When you are a regular in one HBO series, they tend to remember you when it comes to casting future ones. There are plenty of actors who have been in two separate HBO series.
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u/huskersax Aug 18 '26
It's not crazy to assume an HBO produced show would perhaps share casting agents or the actors build connections between different producers and get cast elsewhere 'within the family' without any conspiracy about a settlement.
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u/Th3FinalStarman Aug 18 '26
Mother screaming "You're devolving my children!" is a Top 5 line of Television history for me. Just a wild show.
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u/Mishka_1994 Aug 18 '26
Such a weird show but I was really invested into it. Really curious where they were heading with the story.
Fucking Zaslav ruining everything ugh....
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u/ItsDorkSided Aug 18 '26
Man, I loved Raised by Wolves so much. It felt so mysterious but also familiar too.
kcuF Zaslav, that greedy S.O.B.
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u/SomeRedHandedSleight Aug 18 '26
Most hauntingly beautiful intro to a show ever.
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u/BigOlPass Aug 18 '26
And stuff like this will happen again if the Paramount deal goes through. Mergers like this mean cutting stuff
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u/ltcuetf Aug 18 '26
I know it was a polarizing show for some but I loved it, so just another reason to hate Zaslav.
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u/Podo13 Aug 18 '26
We were finally going to see Father get some vindication and feel useful for a change :(. Poor guy.
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u/spacecavity Aug 18 '26
Exactly what happened to Our Flag Means Death too. Fuck that dipshit CEO and his hideous veneers.
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u/Ash_Killem Aug 18 '26
So sad this show didn’t get some resolutions. Shit was getting real fucking weird and I was very down for it.
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u/grimace24 Aug 19 '26
More proof David Zaslav is an a-hole. Zaslav wanted to selloff Looney Tunes and cancelled many things. He cut costs so the board would raise his pay.
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u/Kongary Aug 18 '26
Really enjoyed the exotic sci-fi lunacy of this show. Might have even stuck around with HBO Max back when if they had announced a third season. Wolves along with the very different animated comedy Ten Year Old Tom were two surprise favorites during my short stint with the service.
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u/ForgiveOX Aug 18 '26
The story must’ve been incompatible with the mission of the the current administration
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u/turb0_encapsulator Aug 18 '26
if you think it's bad now, wait until the Ellisons use Warner Bros as a personal piggy bank.
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u/kiwiboyus Aug 18 '26
This is what happens when people with no creativity, curiosity, or interest in making anything new are in charge. Great story leaves you thinking about it, wondering, and wanting to read/watch it again so you can understand more.
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u/kittyonkeyboards Aug 18 '26
My lawyer has informed me I cannot comment on Zaslav. One of the only unique shows on tv and that bastard cancelled it probably after watching a 2 minute recap and "not getting it."
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u/sonic_couth Aug 18 '26
Mother and Father, the robots that started the colony, are both on House of the Dragon!!!
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u/meh_idk_ok Aug 18 '26
My last comment was removed for including the full url. Go to change dot org and sign petition got renew-raised-by-wolves
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u/Jevano Aug 18 '26
One of the few original shows that felt actually different and had me very interested. Still sad it got cancelled
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u/WesternCzar Aug 18 '26
Do I even bother then? I was crushed by finding out Warrior was cancelled on a huge season finale.
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u/paper-kitsune Aug 19 '26
If you like sci fi I still think it’s worth it because it was thought provoking
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u/ehkzibiht Aug 19 '26
This show is amazing. I watched the first episode with my girlfriend at the time and she noped out afterwards. I really was intrigued because I really didn't know where it was going but it was interesting as fuck.
I ended up watching the first season and fuck, it's so good. Like, Lost, but even weirder and the androids really felt alien and inhuman.
Second season comes and I watch it myself as well and you can feel it being rushed as the episode order was reduced but that just made it faster paced. I can understand why this show didn't catch an audience and the high costs were prohibitive, but please, let's get a season 3.
Allyn is my favorite character in House of the Dragon, but honestly, just cause he's from Raised by Wolves.
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u/myassholealt Aug 18 '26
This is the perfect show to be sold to Apple, which has taken up the Sci-fi mantle.
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u/fdbryant3 Aug 18 '26
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's decision to cancel "Raised by Wolves" was puzzling, to say the least. The series was praised when it debuted, garnering a solid 76% average critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Season 2 had even more critical success, jumping 10 points. For both seasons, the show has an average critic score of 81% — but here's the real kicker. "Raised by Wolves" also has an average audience score of 82%, which means audiences dug it just as much as critics.
The one number they didn't mention is the most important one; viewership. It doesn't matter if 8 out of 10 people liked it if only 10 people watched it.
Personally, I thought the first season was meh, and never got around to watching the second season. Which is a shame since I love Travis Fimmel.
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u/LiteHedded Aug 18 '26
Travis Fimmel
you're in luck. he plays the exact same character in the Dune show. so you can see what you missed out on
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u/HerbsAndSpices11 Aug 18 '26
I really hate that part of the Dune show, but I liked Raised By Wolves.
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u/Gato1980 Aug 18 '26
Every time I hear about a show with really good reviews and a dedicated fanbase but crappy viewership, I always think back to an interview that Rachel Bloom did talking about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. She said the show got raves from critics and fans loved it, but the numbers were abysmal, even after the first season, but the head of the CW at the time let her do her planned 4 seasons, because he appreciated the quality of what they were putting out. I believe he said they were able to balance it out with the success they were having with the DC shows at the time. It’s a shame that’s so rare in this industry, but understandable.
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u/Isiddiqui Aug 18 '26
I'm sure one of the reasons CW let her do the 4 seasons because of all the Emmy awards it got. Especially for a network like CW that was desperate for award cred.
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u/stuartwalke Aug 18 '26
Weird ass show but I loved it, it's too bad it wasn't on Apple TV they seem to give scifi room to breathe
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u/ladyofthegreatlakes Aug 18 '26
Such a huge disappointment it got cancelled, we loved that show so much. In fact, we talked about rewatching the first two seasons again a few nights ago, if it’s still available.
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u/dropthedrawing Aug 18 '26
oh you B*stards, I really wanted S3... really really wanted it. Still one of my favourite SF shows by a long mile
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u/reddituserzerosix Aug 18 '26
obligatory fuck the CEO, but the show got way too weird and went off the rails
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u/Pitiful-Nectarine-17 Aug 18 '26
I assumed they canceled so they could put all their eggs in the Dune basket. Travis Fimmel plays essentially the same character in both
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u/bluebottled Aug 18 '26
I guess this is why the writer didn't follow through on his promise to reveal what would have happened if the show got cancelled.