Demascus emerges as the latest casualty in AMC’s cost-cutting efforts.
Sporadic cancellations have become commonplace over the past year, with many networks and major steamers implementing these cost-cutting measures. On Friday, deadline broke the news that AMC’s Demascus is last on the chopping block and officially receives his cancellation notice. The half-hour six-part sci-fi comedy comes from playwright Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm and executive producers Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and Kirk Moore (American Crime), who also served as showrunner on the series. Unfortunately, the cancellation news came next Demascus had completed production and the series premiered on AMC and AMC+ this year.
Demascus follows an eponymous character, an ordinary 33-year-old black man on a mission of self-discovery. He experiences different versions of his life using innovative technology within emerging digital psychiatry to find his true self. Despite being listed as a sci-fi comedy, the series is delves into self-fulfillment, personal exploration, and different black male perspectives through alternate realities in a genre-fluid way.
Okieriete Onaodowan played the titular character and lead the sci-fi comedy alongside Janet Hubert, Caleb Eberhardt, Shakira Ja’nai Paye and Martin Lawrence, who played a recurring role.
Demascus joins a growing list of cancellations of AMC shows, all part of AMC’s cost-cutting effort after the network announced plans to write off $400 million in programming last year. The upcoming thriller Campfire invitation also failed to air, as it was canceled during production. Like Demascus, both series were ordered last year as part of AMC’s script-to-series model. Additionally, Moonport and 61st street got the ax in their second seasons, with AMC reversing their initial decision to continue with both series.
Demascus’ Showrunner Opens Up About AMC’s Sudden Cancellations
Showrunner Kirk Moore increased Twitter yesterday in a succession of tweets Demascus’ cancellation and the industry’s cost-cutting efforts negatively impacting creators. He announced the news using Deadline’s article with the caption, “Welcome to the company. This sucks. But it happens EVERYWHERE.”
According to deadline, Moore’s now-deleted follow-up tweet included, “It’s wild no one gets to see all the very good work everyone has put into this project due to finances and issues beyond our control.” He also stated that “several other factors” contributed to this Demascus’ untimely end, but his tweets covered some of what happened.
Although the series has been dropped from AMC, hope for audiences to see the sci-fi coming-of-age story isn’t completely lost. AMC Studios plans to sell the project, which means it could find a home with another company or streamer. Under his announcement tweet, Moore agreed with a user about his shipping hopes demascus elsewhere.