American Vandal Creators Reflect on "Bummer" of Being Cancelled by Netflix

Back in 2018, American Vandal was canceled by Netflix. The popular documentary satire series ran for two seasons before it was axed by the streamer. "American Vandal will not return for a third season," Netflix said in a statement. "We're very grateful to the creators, writers, cast and crew for bringing their innovative comedy to Netflix, and to the fans and critics who embraced its unique and unconventional humor." Now, co-creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault are back to the mockumentary genre with Paramount+'s Players. Recently, they had a chat with ComingSoon and opened up about the cancelation of American Vandal. 

"I think it's a bummer to have something you love canceled, but we also are so grateful for the opportunity," Yacenda said. "If you describe the premise of that show to anyone, it's crazy that somebody let us make that show in the first place. So I think there were a lot of external market forces that made it possible for that show to be made in 2016. And by 2018, the streaming market was very much changing. But I don't think we could complain about the latter without being very grateful for the former."

"Tony and I had worked for years before Vandal, but that, in a way, really felt like another step for us in learning how best to work with each other," Perrault added. "And I think a lot of the toolkit we used on Players comes directly from our experience with Vandal. We're super grateful to Netflix and everyone who gave us that opportunity."

"I echo what Tony said in that I think we were very lucky to have sold that and to have been able to do that when we did," Perrault continued. "The show also kicked my ass because it was hard. Both of these mockumentaries are not the easiest to make between the gameplay and different elements of Players and then also creating these complex social media worlds of these fictional characters. But I couldn't be more grateful that we got the opportunity. And I think one thing that I'm grateful for in addition to that is that each season is self-contained. It's not in the nature of American Vandal to ever end on a cliffhanger, but thank God we didn't."

The next episode of Players hits Paramount+ on July 7th.