After being somewhat unceremoniously (and unfairly) canceled earlier this month, Sense8 is returning to Netflix… sort of. Lana Wachowski, who co-created the series with her sister Lilly, made the announcement on Facebook, writing, “It is my great pleasure as well as Netflix’s (believe me, they love the show as much as we do but the numbers have always been challenging) to announce that there will be another two-hour special released next year.”
In the letter, Lana also discussed her immediate reaction after finding out Sense8, which she and Lilly reportedly conceived years before it premiered on Netflix, was axed. “The outpouring of love and grief that came in the wake of the news that Sense8 would not be continuing was so intense, that I often found myself unable to open my own email. I confess I fell into a fairly serious depression,” she wrote. “I had never worked so hard, or put so much of myself into a project as I had with Sense8 and its cancelation hollowed me out.”
The show wasn’t a huge hit — or so it seems; Netflix infamously doesn’t release viewing data — but it developed a big enough cult following to sway the streaming service into giving it a proper finale. From a business perspective, it makes sense. Netflix expects its viewers to watch everything at once, not in weekly installments. To not give Sense8 an official series finale would make the show, which will linger on the servers until the end of time (Netflix will outlive the apocalypse), feel incomplete. And for viewers, it proves some fan campaigns do work. Keep sending those peanuts to CBS!
