Fan-Favorite CW TV Series Leaving Netflix

Beauty and the Beast, the cult-favorite CW series starring Smallville‘s Kristin Kreuk, is leaving Netflix on September 18, 2021. There’s no word where it might end up, although since it was produced by CBS Television Studios, there’s at least an outside chance that Beauty and the Beast will head to Paramount+, ViacomCBS’s own streaming platform. The series starred Kreuk and Jay Ryan in the title roles, and reimagined the classic “Beauty and the Beast” story as a modern sci-fi police procedural in the vein of Grimm. It was Kreuk’s first big role after Smallville, airing from 2012 until 2016. She has since gone on to appear in Burden of Truth, which is a Canadian original series but also airs on The CW in the U.S.

Beauty and the Beast was also notable for being loosely based on not only the existing mythology, but an existing CBS series. In 1987, there was a romantic mystery series based on the Beauty and the Beast concept starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman.

During the life of the series, it earned solid reviews and a passionate fan base, earning a number of People’s Choice Awards during its run, and being nominated for a number of other awards. Still, the series always felt like it lived on the cancellation bubble. After the series concluded, fans tried to campaign to keep it alive, even petitioning Netflix to pick it up. Of course, Netflix providing closure for cancelled series is something that gets speculated about and asked for, more than it actually happens.

You can see the series synopsis below (via Wikipedia):

In Beauty and the Beast, Catherine Chandler witnessed her mother’s murder and was almost killed herself until someone — or something — saved her. After nine years, now working as a detective for the NYPD, a case leads her to Vincent Keller, an ex-soldier believed to have been killed in action during military service, who is actually alive. As Catherine comes to know him, she finds out more about her mother’s murder and about who-and what-Vincent really is. The series also starred Austin Basis, Nina Lisandrello, Nicole Gale Anderson, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Max Brown, Brian J. White, Amber Skye Noyes and Michael Roark.

Were you a fan of Beauty and the Beast? Sound off in the comments below, or follow @russburlingame on Twitter to talk about all things comics and fantasy on The CW.