Pantheon arrived with little in the way of promotion in 2022 and delivered an excellent science fiction story, but sadly it was cast off by AMC as a write-down.
[Updated]
What Is It?
Pantheon follows a bullied teenager who starts receiving strange messages online, and she discovers that they are from her father who died two years ago but had his intelligence uploaded. She seeks the help of others to gain custody of his U.I. (Uploaded Intelligence) but learns that the company that possesses it has other plans for the U.I. and the technology that made it happen.
Aired: AMC, 2022, 2 Seasons Totaling 16 Episodes (2nd Season never aired in the U.S.)
Starring: Katie Chang, Paul Dano, Aaron Eckhart, Rosemarie DeWitt, Daniel Dae Kim, Ron Livingston
Created By: Craig Silverstein
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Why Was It Cancelled?
This animated series based on the short stories by Ken Liu moved into development at AMC in 2018, and even though progress on it was slow, the network gave it a two-season commitment up front. The first season finally debuted in September 2022 on the AMC+ and HIDIVE streaming services, but it received very little in the way of promotion. The network did not release any viewership numbers for the series, but apparently it did not draw much of an audience and its cancellation was announced in January 2023 even though the second season was completed at that time. That decision came amidst behind-the-scenes shakeups at AMC Networks following the sudden departure of their CEO in November 2022. The network execs were trying to cut costs and they decided to take a write-down on Pantheon which resulted in it being removed from streaming immediately.
The second season did final make an appearance on Amazon’s Prime Video, but only in Australia and New Zealand. Apparently part of the write-down that the network took involved not making that season available for viewing in the United States. The show was shopped around, but any venue interested in picking up both seasons would have compensate AMC for the tax hit it would have to take to reverse the write-down. The first season of the show joined the Netflix lineup in November 2024, and the very afternoon after I posted the original version of this article it was announced that the second season will arrive in February 2025. I mentioned in that version of the post that Netflix has plenty of money to cover the costs of the show (and they will be getting more since they are raising subscription prices again), and sure enough it appears that they did.
Can the Show Be Saved?
The two seasons that have been completed tell a full story, though there is more source material from the Ken Liu stories, so it is possible that a third season was considered at some point. But most fans who watched the first season (myself included) are more interested in just seeing the remaining episodes released. That will be happening now, so the question is whether Netflix might be interested in carrying the show into a third season and beyond.
The streamer may only be looking to pad its lineup of originals with the two completed seasons, but if viewership is strong enough, perhaps Pantheon could continue. If fans were to start staging watch parties they could get the show in the Netflix Top 10. And if it spends a few weeks there, then network execs may consider producing more episodes. But people need to watch this one on that service and probably also get it trending on social media for anything to happen. At least we will finally get to watch the conclusion to the first season, and if there is enough support, perhaps the show will continue beyond that.
Where Can You Watch It?
As mentioned above, Netflix is now streaming the first season of Pantheon in the United States, and the second season will arrive on the service on February 21st. From what I can tell, only the first season is still available in Australia and New Zealand at this point, and if someone in that area could confirm, that would be great. You can try searching out episodes on YouTube, but they may not last long there because of rights issues. The show is not currently available on physical media.
Did you watch Pantheon and would you support efforts for a revival? Chime in with your comments below.
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