Why Was Raised by Wolves Cancelled and Can It Be Saved?

The sci fi series Raised by Wolves premiered on HBO Max in the Fall of 2020, and it set off some buzz as a unique genre entry with imagination and vision.  Some of the reviews may have been mixed, but overall the show scored well with critics and viewers, holding an 80% Fresh Rating and 80% Audience Score at Rotten Tomatoes across its first two seasons.  After the second season ended, the assumption by many was that the show would continue its story into a third year.  But the streamer was silent on its fate for a couple of months before finally announcing its cancellation in June.  Series star Abubakar Salim had warned that the cancellation was coming and put up the following post on r/RaisedByWolves blaming it on the merger of Discovery with Warner Bros. (which owns HBO Max):

It’s not surprising, especially after the news of these mergers and what is happening at Warner, that a lot of shows are not having their stories finished.

And unfortunately, one of those shows is Raised by Wolves.

Nothing has been shared yet. But there is a reason for that. An important one. And one which I’m here to share with you now. There is hope.

You see, we’re in a unique position: we have a fully fleshed out and planned storyline, a Goliath of a production team behind us, incredible reception from critics and reviewers alike, and most crucially, a community base that is so strong internationally, it can not be ignored.

The reason the cancellation hasn’t been announced is because there’s still a chance the story can continue, and be finished at a new home.

He went on to indicate that the show was being shopped around and asked for help from fans to bring attention to the show to stir up interest from other venues.  Raised by Wolves is owned in part by Ridley Scott’s Scott Free productions, so it is not necessarily tied down to HBO Max.  The streamer likely has rights to the property for a specified period of time, but that can be worked out just like Netflix and NBC hashed out a deal to move Manifest over to the streaming service.  Fans were taking to the social networks with hashtags like #SaveRaisedByWolves and #RenewRaisedByWolves, but as of this writing I have not heard of any progress in getting the show moved to a new home.

There may still be some behind-the-scenes efforts to make that happen, but the fate of the show could depend on the fans at this point.  After the cancellation, they did manage to get it trending on social media, but the momentum seems to have slowed since then.  There is an online petition that is approaching 21K signatures as of this writing.  But it will certainly take more than that.  Fans need to stage watch parties to see if they can get the show in the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 like we saw with Manifest last year.  The show was at Number 2 on iTunes last week and keeping it on that chart could help as well.  And there is plenty more that fans can do as I go into in more detail at our Call to Action page.

We have seen shows like Manifest, The Expanse, Lucifer, and more saved by the efforts of fans over the past few years.  Raised by Wolves has a better chance of moving to a different venue than some shows because it is not owned by HBO Max and its production company is actively trying to shop it around.  Fans need to keep it trending on multiple charts in order to prove that the show has a notable audience and will bring viewers (along with subscriptions) to whatever platform it lands on.  There is more to the story as Abubakar Salim mentioned above, and if the show is to have any chance of making it to a third season, it will need the fans to step up and bring it plenty of attention.

Did you watch Raised by Wolves and will you help with efforts to save it from cancellation?  Chime in with your comments below.

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