HBO
HBO’s Lovecraft Country was one of the standout shows among Black TV when it debuted in 2020. The show blended Black history, fantasy and sci-fi, making it an exceptional series that stood in a class of its own. When the show was canceled before the anticipated the second season could debut, fans were crushed and wanted answers. The answers are now here.
In James Andrew Miller’s Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers,’ he gave a look into the history of the network and revealed why we had to bid farewell to Lovecraft Country so abruptly. Miller said the one to blame is the show runner Misha Green, who allegedly created a hostile work environment.
In an excerpt published by Love B. Scott, Miller wrote:
Lovecraft was a beautiful show in terms of its look, its narrative and what I would also consider to be an exceptional marriage of storytelling and music. When the show got canceled, there were two predominant explanations out there. One was it had gotten too expensive. The second was there wasn’t a compelling vision for the next season. It turns out neither was the real reason. I had several sources within HBO and elsewhere — people who worked on the show and people who represented people on the show — who said the environment on the show was not a healthy one. For HBO, it was a double-down on sadness — not only is it losing a show that was such an outlier in terms of what it was trying to say, but then to have a Black showrunner — and a female Black showrunner — is not something that happens every day, and people were incredibly excited about that. So, again, the word I come back to is “sadness” that it was not able to continue.
Green hasn’t commented on these claims. Green inked a deal with Apple TV, so there are hopes that a second season of the show will debut there.
