Entertainment · TV & Streaming · 2 hrs ago
Carnival Row Ended After Two Seasons to Free Cast and Crew From Contracts
Prime Video’s fantasy series Carnival Row ended after two seasons, with its final season released in 2023.
The show stars Orlando Bloom as a police inspector and Cara Delevingne as a fae woman in an oppressive, steampunk-inspired city.
Season 2 production began in late 2019, then stopped when the COVID-19 pandemic halted Hollywood productions.
The decision to end the series was made during the pandemic as delays left cast and crew tied to contracts.
Showrunner Erik Oleson said the goal was to let them find other work and support their families.
Amazon gave the team two extra episodes after Oleson said eight would not be enough to finish the story satisfactorily.
The writers reworked storylines, but Season 2 received mixed reviews from critics and a warmer response from viewers.
Prime Video’s Carnival Row ended after two seasons, with the decision made during the COVID-19 pandemic to free cast and crew from their contracts.
Showrunner Erik Oleson said delays could have kept people from taking other jobs and supporting their families.
Production on the second season began in late 2019 before the pandemic halted Hollywood production.
The final season premiered in February 2023, and its finale aired the following month.
Amazon gave the show two extra episodes after Oleson said he was unsure he could end the story satisfactorily in eight episodes.
- Who
- Prime Video, production company Legendary and showrunner Erik Oleson made the decision. The decision was intended to free the cast and crew from their contracts.
- What
- Carnival Row ended after two seasons. The show’s second season was its final season.
- When
- The decision was made during the COVID-19 pandemic. The final season premiered in February 2023.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- Delays risked keeping cast and crew under contract and preventing them from taking other work. Oleson described ending the series as the right moral decision.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The first season premiered.
Production on the second season began.
The decision was made to end the series, and production delays led to heavy rewriting of some early episodes.
The final season premiered.
The season finale aired.
- Seasons
- Two
- First-season premiere
- 2019
- Second-season production began
- Late 2019
- Final-season premiere
- February 2023
- Extra episodes
- Two
What people are saying
There were a lot of people under contract that would have been unable to go get other jobs and feed their families and it was the right moral decision for the cast and crew to let them go get work rather than hold them to contracts and tie them up
We needed to go reinvent some of the storylines that we had already shot, so we went back and did heavy rewriting on some of the early episodes
We were shut down for COVID just as we were finishing filming a storyline that involved a virus going through the Carnival Row taking out the fae