KAOS will be coming to an end at Netflix as the streamer has cancelled the show after one season. Actress Aurora Perrineau put the following post on Instagram and then deleted it:
“Well… this one hurts. I find explaining how I’m feeling to be really difficult, but I’ll try.
“When I started auditioning for this show, I knew it was special, mainly due to the fact that Charlie Covell’s scripts resonated with me in a way most things hadn’t. I knew all of these people, and I loved them all — every flaw, everything.
“For one of the first times in my life, I have found myself really proud. I’m, of course, proud of everyone’s work and the care they gave to this project, because, let me tell you, they left everything on the floor. But I’ve also found myself proud of me, and that is something I’ve struggled with.
“When I got cast, I couldn’t believe that someone SAW me. A girl who’s not only a minority but also a survivor of SA – and you’re telling me that someone thinks I could be one of the leads of a show, have agency, my own mission, and be desirable enough to be the love interest to not only one amazing human but two? I was worthy of that? Everything that happened from that point forward really changed my perspective.
“As the journey continued, I started to learn about the absolutely amazing talent involved – as if Charlie wasn’t enough. Then I learned of our directors, Georgi [Banks-Davies] and Runyararo [Mapfumo]. It continued with our incredible cast; there are far too many to mention, but I have to acknowledge the three who have become life-long friends, family and lifelines while we drifted through Spain for months: Misia [Butler], Nabhaan [Rizwan] and Killian [Scott].
“Our beautiful HMU department, wardrobe department, Sister, Netflix, our production team and our entire crew – every single person involved was a heavy hitter. And there I was, sitting and wondering how? Why me? And the answer I often got back was: why not you?
“Everyone was brilliant and uniquely themselves. Every performance surprised and excited me. I can’t believe I got to do this with all of you. We made something weird, dark, hilarious, deranged and absolutely tragic – something entirely human. THIS is a feeling I plan to take with me.”
Perrineau (who is the daughter of From‘s Harold Perrineau) did not specifically say in the post that the show was cancelled, but when one person asked the question directly, following was her reply:
The cancellation was later confirmed by Deadline.
KAOS spent four weeks in the Netflix Top 10 and averaged 25 million hours of viewing per week during that time. It has also spent two weeks in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings so far, averaging 668 million minutes of viewing per week, and I was thinking it was on track for renewal. It is an expensive series to make, but it certainly looked like it had performed well enough to get the greenlight for a second season. This is an unknown property that received very little promotion (as is typical with streaming originals) and yet it delivered a solid performance as far as viewership. And creator Charlie Covell did have more seasons planned for the show. But Netflix sets a very high bar for its originals (while failing to do much to promote them) and apparently decided that this one did not perform up to the streamer’s standards.
Since this news is breaking (I already updated the post once since publishing it), there is no word on whether the show will be shopped around. Netflix usually holds the rights to a property for at least two years, so even if another venue is interested, it could be a while before the show could move. KAOS did develop some notable buzz, and I expect to see fans make a Call to Action for the show on the social networks. And maybe this time around we cancel Netflix to show that we are not happy with the way that they fail to promote their originals. I plan on cancelling the service at the end of the month (I only just re-upped it this past Summer, in part to watch this very series), and I will give the cancellation of KAOS and other shows as my reason. If enough people do that, maybe the streamer will start to take notice.
The 2024-25 season is still young, but this brings us to seven cancelled and ending sci fi fantasy entries so far (35% of shows tracked) vs. ten renewed (50%). You can see the breakdown of the numbers and the full list of shows for the current and prior seasons on our Cancellation Watch Page.
KAOS delivers a modern-day contemporary retelling of Greek mythology in which Zeus starts to worry about loosing his control over the world as both humans and gods scheme against him. It stars Jeff Goldblum, Janet McTeer, Cliff Curtis, David Thewlis, Killian Scott, Stephen Dillane, and Aurora Perrineau.
We are now two months into the 2024-25 season and more cancellation and renewal announcements should be on the way. You can see the status of all this season’s shows at this link. And be sure to follow this site as well as our Twitter and Mastodon accounts for updates and breaking news.
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I watched the show Kaos and though I like Jeff Goldblum as an actor, the show was not that great. I guess the point of the show is to bring Greek mythology (which was also adopted by the Romans) up to modern times. As you probably know different peoples believed in different Gods. I had an idea for a show wherein the Greek/Roman Gods Zeus/Jupiter, Appollo, aphroditite/venus, and the rest have competition with the Norse, Gods, the most famous being Odin, the Chief God and clearly his favorite child “Thor”. The Norse Gods are more interesting, in my opinion, because they are all part of the same family and therefore their family conflicts and issues are common to human families as well.
In contrast, Elena, I think that Kaos was exceptional and that the Norse gods are extremely overdone.
Personally, I loved the show. I was unique and well done and Jeff Goldblum did a great job as Zeus. But it was really more of an ensemble show, and pretty much everybody brought their A-game. I was very disappointed by this news.