HBO Max Cancels Fan-Favorite Series After Two Seasons

HBO Max has broken up with Love Life. On Monday, reports indicated that the streaming service has cancelled the romantic comedy anthology series after two seasons. The show was one of the flagship titles of HBO Max upon its launch in May of 2020, with its second season debuting in October of 2021. This is the second original series that the streamer has cancelled so far in this week, with Minx also being cancelled after one season, despite production on Season 2 already being mostly complete. Both season of Love Life will also be removed from HBO Max.

According to reports, the cancellation of these shows is driven by Warner Bros. Discovery, which runs HBO Max, working to cut costs in efforts to trim significant amounts of money from its budget. Earlier this month, the streamer also cancelled two of its more-expensive original reality shows — FBoy Island and Legendary — for the same reason.

What is Love Life about?

Love Life was an anthology series following a different person each season from their first romance until their last romance. The first season followed art curator Darby Carter (Anna Kendrick), while the second season followed publishing executive Marcus Watkins (William Jackson Harper). Across the two seasons, the case also included Zoë Chao, Peter Vack, Sasha Compère, Jessica Williams, Comedian CP, and Punkie Johnson.

“No decision,” HBO and HBO Max Content chairman and CEO Casey Bloys had previously said of a third season of Love Life. “Obviously that is an anthology so a lot of it is who is the lead, but no decision or movement there to talk about.”

Why is HBO Max cancelling so many shows?

Love Life‘s cancellation comes amid a string of new behind-the-scenes changes at HBO Max, following the recent merger of its new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. These patterns began with the cancellation of Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt back in August. Both films, which were already completed and were set to debut on HBO Max, were later reported to be canned for the sake of tax write-downs, which will seemingly be recorded in Q3 of 2022. In the days since, Warner Bros. Discovery removed six HBO Max-exclusive movies from their streaming platform, as well as a number of fan-favorite animated series. Anonymous sources alleged in August of this year that no existing show is safe from potentially being cancelled or written off, with Warner Bros. Discovery now making decisions on a case-by-case basis.

“Looking at the wide breadth of all the shows that were taken off of the service, it’s hard to even see a throughline between them,” OK K.O.: Let’s Be Heroes! creator Ian Jones-Quartey said in an interview last month. “We’re still just not sure why some things were taken off and other things weren’t. The whole thing is just very confusing, and there hasn’t been much outreach to anybody.”  

What do you think of HBO Max cancelling Love Life? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

h/t: Variety