In a case of uncannily rotten timing, Starz announced the cancellation of Heels, Run the World, and Blindspotting days after the WGA reached a tentative deal with the studios.
In addition, Variety reports that The Venery of Samantha Bird, which went into production on its first season and stars Katherine Langford, got shut down permanently with only two episodes left to shoot. The official logline for the show that will never air reads, “Samantha, while visiting family in New England, reconnects with her childhood sweetheart and falls headlong into a seemingly perfect storybook romance. But the couple’s picture-perfect love story isn’t as sweet as it seems on the surface.”
Heels (pictured, above) stars Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig as wrestlers who inherit the Duffy Wrestling League from their father. Michael Waldron created the series that also stars Alexander Ludwig, Chris Bauer, Mary McCormack, Kelli Berglund, Allen Maldonado, Trey Tucker, Robby Ramos, Alice Barrett Mitchell, Roxton Garcia, David James Elliott, Joel Murray, and CM Punk. Heels aired for two seasons.
Starz Also Cancels Run the World and Blindspotting
The comedy-drama Blindspotting (pictured, above) is a TV sequel series to the 2018 movie of the same name. Jasmine Cephas Jones reprises her movie role as Ashley Rose — a woman struggling to find normalcy in Oakland for herself and her son after his father gets locked up. The show aired for two seasons and also stars Benjamin Earl Turner, Atticus Woodward, Jaylen Barron, Candace Nicholas-Lippman, and Helen Hunt.
In an interview with Complex, Jones says:
“I’m so excited. We worked so hard on this show in the middle of a pandemic, and we were able to finish it and really create something beautiful, and funny, and gut-wrenching. I’m just really, really happy about it. It’s amazing to be a lead and to get to create a big part, and do research on backstories, and just evolve and get the space to breathe and really create something beautiful with my friends. It’s been a great opportunity to show so many different parts of me and so many different parts of Ashley as well, to be able to have that platform.”
Run the World follows a group of friends in Harlem. The series also aired for two seasons — the apparent average life expectancy of Starz programming — and stars Amber Stevens West, Bresha Webb, Corbin Reid, Stephen Bishop, Tosin Morohunfola, Erika Alexander, Nick Sagar, Jay Walker, and Tonya Pinkins.
Starz is a premium cable network owned by Lionsgate.
