American Rust Cancelled by Amazon

American Rust will not get a third season, Amazon has announced. The series, which released its second season in March, has been cancelled for a second time. Amazon actually saved the show, airing its second season after the series was canceled by its original network, Showtime, in 2022. Amazon’s FAST service Freevee was the originally-planned home to American Rust before it was moved to Prime Video, where it would get a bigger bump. All 10 episodes of the second season dropped on March 28. Based on the Philipp Meyer novel of the same name, the series’ future was already in doubt when one of its stars, Maura Tierney, recently took a high-profile gig on Law & Order.

American Rust explored the tattered American Dream in a Rust Belt town in southwest Pennsylvania through the eyes of police chief Del Harris. Harris becomes compromised when the son of the woman he loves (Tierney) is accused of murder, and he is forced to decide what he’s willing to do to protect him.

TVLine first reported the cancellation.

“I’m grateful to Amazon Freevee for giving us the chance to make Season Two of American Rust,” star Jeff Daniels said when it was resurrected. “Set inside a struggling American small town, our authentic, realistically told story is built for streaming. The movies they don’t make anymore are being made as series at places like Amazon Freevee.”

In the first season of American Rust, Del and Grace were looking into the mysterious death of a police officer that left the force. During those episodes, it became clear that the mystery wouldn’t be getting wrapped up that easily. Now, in the new trailer for Season 2, it seems that other seemingly unrelated murders have more to do with their original case than anyone would have thought. That’s a problem for this tight-knit Pennsylvania town. 

Here’s the synopsis for the second season, which was subtitled “Broken Justice”: 

“American Rust: Broken Justice takes us back to the fictional small town of Buell, Pennsylvania. Del Harris (Daniels) and Grace Poe (Tierney) try to rebuild their lives after the harrowing events of Season One. Season Two picks up with a string of seemingly unrelated murders, hinting at a much larger conspiracy that threatens everyone in this small, tight-knit town.”

Both seasons of American Rust are available to stream on Prime Video now.