Sense8 Petition Fails To Sway Netflix

Only a month or so has passed since the debut of season 2 and already, Netflix has reached its unfortunate decision regarding the fate of Sense8. As you’ve no doubt heard, despite an overwhelmingly positive reaction to May’s premiere, the show’s second season will indeed be its last.

A big-budget project in the vein of Sense8 – coupled with its lengthy production process and costly VFX – meant that Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s series, one created in tandem with J. Michael Straczynski, really needed to hit the big leagues in order to be considered a success. And unfortunately, Sense8 never quite reached the dizzying heights of, say, Orange is the New Black or House of Cards, the result of which is a cancellation that many fans will no doubt consider to be premature.

In his review last month, our own TV critic Mitchel Broussard had nothing but praise for the sophomore run, writing: “One of the most intriguing and sincere sci-fi mythologies returns in Sense8’s second season, which never for a second loses sight of the aching humanity pulsing away at the center of the show’s breakneck adventure.”

Fans seemed to agree with that sentiment, too, as a petition sprung up on Change.org not too long ago, garnering a huge amount of signatures and support. For a while there, it actually seemed like it might be enough to get Netflix to rethink their decision, but we’re saddened to report now that that won’t be happening. The streaming service stood by their word today, reiterating to fans that while the support is appreciated, the show won’t be coming back.

In a posting to the official Tumblr page for Sense8, here’s what Netflix said:

“To our Sense8 family… We’ve seen the petitions. We’ve read the messages. We know you want to #RenewSense8, and we wish we could #BringBackSense8 for you. The reason we’ve taken so long to get back to you is because we’ve thought long and hard here at Netflix to try to make it work but unfortunately we can’t. Thank you for watching and hope you’ll stay close with your cluster around the world. #SensatesForever“

Doesn’t get much more final than that, right? If you were still holding out hope for some kind of revival – as we were – it’d be best to give up now. Netflix’s made it pretty clear that they aren’t interested in putting Sense8 back into production and the most recent batch of episodes will be the last. While that’s certainly unfortunate, at least we have two fantastic seasons to cherish, and no one can ever take that away.