ABC is working out its schedule as next week’s Upfronts approach when it will present its schedule for the 2016-17 season, and we now know that two genre entries will not be returning. Agent Carter has been cancelled after two season and Galavant has also been cancelled after two seasons. Neither of those announcements come as a big surprise based on their ratings, although the rumors floating around concerning Agent Carter have ranged from sure renewal to sure cancellation. There is no word yet on whether Peggy Carter will cross-over on Agents of SHIELD next season as rumored, though Haley Atwell will be staying at ABC to star in the newly picked up series Conviction. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her show up on a few Season 4 AoS eps because that can give the Agent Carter series better resolution and the two can possibly be paired in a syndication package. Galavant slipped to historically low numbers for a Big Four broadcast network show during its second season, so the cancellation seemed assured. But it beat the odds last season, so I took a pass on predicting its fate this year. That was a fun little Disney-meets-Monty-Python show that never quite caught on but will likely gallop off to cult infamy. Another announcement of note from ABC: the Agents of SHIELD spin-off series Marvel’s Most Wanted will not go forward leaving AoS as the only Marvel show on ABC’s schedule. And that one has struggled mightily in the ratings, so it could very well be departing after its fourth season.
A few more announcements that may interest genre fans: ABC’s reboot of The Muppets will not live on into a second season, and Castle (which stars Firefly alum Nathan Fillion) will not be back for a ninth season. The Muppets started strong out of the gate but saw its numbers quickly go south amidst grumblings that its The-Office-meets-The-Muppets premise was a bad idea. The network tried a mid-season reboot of sorts that did not help the ratings and apparently they decided that was enough. And with Nathan Fillion no longer tied to Castle, you know that Firefly revival rumors are going to start spreading quickly.
Keep a close eye on this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and other cancellation / renewal announcements as we cover the leadup to the Upfronts over the next few days.
