Netflix Cancels Altered Carbon After Two Seasons

Netflix will not be moving forward with more of its cyberpunk sci-fi series Altered Carbon. Deadline reports that the streaming service declined to order a third season of the show. The first season of the series starred Joel Kinnaman. The second, eight-episode season starred Anthony Mackie and debuted in February. Ann anime movie followed in March. According to the report, Netflix made this decision in April and was not influenced by the coronavirus pandemic, which did influence the company’s decision to cancel two other shows. Laeta Kalogridis created Altered Carbon as an adaptation of Richard K. Morgan’s novel of the same name from 2002.

In February, Mackie spoke to ComicBook.com about taking over for Kinnaman in Altered Carbon’s lead role. “Well, season one was very different than season two, and, you know, Takeshi was out for revenge,” Mackie said. “So, he was a very dark, very mean, very stoic character. So, in the beginning of this season, I wanted to bring that same energy in, and allow the season to affect him, and turn him, and make him more emotional, and make him go from, cause you’re not worried about the arc of the second season, you have to think about the arc from the first episode to the end of the second season. So, I was trying to play that arc and I really like what Joel and Will were able to do in the first season, so extracting a little bit of that but putting my funk on it.”

In Altered Carbon, society is transformed by new technology that allows for consciousness to be digitized, making human bodies interchangeable and death impermanent. The second season took place 30 years after the first.

According to the official Season Two synopsis, “Season Two of the sophisticated and compelling sci-fi drama finds Takeshi Kovacs (Anthony Mackie), the lone surviving soldier of a group of elite interstellar warriors, continuing his centuries old quest to find his lost love Quellcrist Falconer (Renée Elise Goldsberry). After decades of planet-hopping and searching the galaxy, Kovacs finds himself recruited back to his home planet of Harlan’s World with the promise of finding Quell. Haunted by his past and responsible for investigating a series of brutal murders, Kovacs is stunned to discover his new mission to solve the crime and his pursuit to find Quell are one and the same. With the help of his loyal A.I. Poe (Chris Conner), Kovacs must now partner with new allies to outwit his enemies and find the truth: Who is Quellcrist Falconer?”

Altered Carbon Season Two starred Anthony Mackie, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lela Loren, Simone Missick, Chris Conner, Dina Shihabi and Torben Liebrecht. Will Yun Lee and James Saito guest starred.

Altered Carbon was produced by Skydance television, is executive produced by Alison Schapker, Laeta Kalogridis, James Middleton, Rose Lam, Bradley J. Fischer, James Vanderbilt, Mike Medavoy and Arnold W. Messer, alongside David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross for Skydance.