Reshoots, rewrites, creative differences and all manner of other excuses have been used to explain why some shows, no matter how good, only seem to get one shot at making an impression.
But no matter the reason it can often leave one group dismayed – the viewer.
We’ve often become engrossed in a show on a streaming service only to find out that it’s been shelved – sometimes even before the story is complete.
Here are three Disney+ shows that fell by the wayside, but for one reason or another should have been given a second chance.
The Right Stuff
Someone once said “Space is big” and while this is true, it seems Space isn’t big enough for two shows based on the same premise.
The Right Stuff is a 2020 TV adaptation of Tom Wolf’s book of the same name, plus the 1983 film. It charts the US Space programme, its push towards the Mercury project and the lives and sacrifices of the US Air Force test pilots who paved the way for modern space flight.
With a solid budget, a great young cast and the backing of a major network, the series was one of the first big self-made releases for Disney+ and seen as a show that would open the door for more of its type. The problem was that another show was already doing something similar and doing it much better.
Apple TV+’s For All Mankind had already been out for a year and not only followed the exact same story, but was also brave and intelligent enough to expand the universe into the realm of possible futures and alternative timelines. It looked great, was a lot more adult than Disney’s offering and had already grabbed the audience. So, when The Right Stuff was released, instead of the fanfare that was expected, it was greeted by critics who simply saw it as an inferior and very limited copy.
The first show on Disney+ to be cancelled, The Right Stuff is still being touted to other networks, and over the last two years there have been rumours of a second season. But, with For All Mankind still around, there doesn’t seem much point. Which is a shame.
National Treasure: Edge of History
Imagine if Tom Cruise decided to step aside from the Mission Impossible franchise but the movies kept rolling out. Imagine if Tom Hanks stopped doing the voice of Woody in Toy Story but Pixar made more. Now imagine if Nicholas Cage stopped making the National Treasure flicks, but it was decided that there should be a huge budget spin-off television show with almost zero personality and a cast of main characters that are not only instantly forgettable, but also particularly unlikable… well
You might be thinking that, considering what we’ve just described, why should we propose that it should get a second season? Well, everybody deserves a second chance, don’t they?
National Treasure: Edge Of History is not a good show. Without Cage it lacks the fun and adventure element from the movies and suffers from having no form of star quality to replace him. The producers went with a new, young and unknown cast and through this the failure began.
However, the show deserves a reboot. It’s a well known and well loved franchise and, as such, it seems a shame that Disney does not seem interested in trying again with a new cast and a new angle. Get a new star, add some actual adventure and drama and make it fun again. To let the franchise simply die now with a whimper seems a disservice.
Nautilus
It takes a special kind of TV show to be cancelled before a single second of fully filmed and produced footage ever reaches the screen. Nautilus is such a show.
It seemed the perfect premise on paper – a big budget, modern adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, retelling the origin story of the iconic Captain Nemo and his submarine, the eponymous Nautilus.
However, things just don’t work out sometimes.
The problem with the show wasn’t so much that it deserved another season, more that it never saw the light of day in the first place. Disney+ canned it before screening season 1, even though it was all in the can.
The streamer decided that it was more lucrative financially to not release the show and claim a tax write down on the cost of production than to invest more money in reshoots, marketing and royalty payments. It needed to cut back $3 billion in non-sport related content and Nautilus was added to what I can only assume will be a long list.
The good news is that recently AMC in the US has bought the show and plans to release it at some point in 2024. We should still get to see if it was worth the fuss after all.
