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With the ongoing strikes, we feared that networks would start canceling shows. The Peripheral is the first casualty.

Despite landing a second season before the end of the first, The Peripheral Season 2 is no longer going to happen. Amazon announced the news on Friday, Aug. 18.

This is disappointing for fans of the series. It’s also disappointing for the creators. The first season left things wide open for more storytelling in this story that takes place across two time periods.

Why has Amazon canceled The Peripheral?

Why would a network cancel a show after initially renewing it? Doesn’t this cost a lot of money? Well, yes, there are penalties written into contracts for canceling a show after renewing it. These penalties could be less than the continued loss for Amazon, though.

TVLine shares that the decision was made due to the ongoing strike action. The WGA has been on strike since May 2023, and SAG-AFTRA has been on strike since the middle of July 2023. This means all shows have come to a halt, and The Peripheral Season 2 was only in the pre-production stage at the time of the writer shutdown.

Amazon is concerned about delays in programming. Production was set to start this year for a 2024 release date. With the current delays, there’s a chance that the show wouldn’t be ready until 2025, and that disrupts the plans that Amazon had for that year. Instead of disrupting everything, Amazon has decided to cancel a couple of freshman shows.

And it is the freshman shows going into their sophomore years that have faced more cancellations. This is simply due to it being harder to get people to come back. The shows that already have an established audience can get away with a longer break.

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What did you think of The Peripheral Season 1? What did you want to see happen in Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Peripheral* is available to stream on Prime Video.