Carina Adly MacKenzie will step down as showrunner of Roswell, New Mexico, leaving the series ahead of its third season, which is expected to go into production this fall. Her departure is due to “fundamental differences,” reportedly with Warner Bros. Television, rather than creative differences with anyone on the cast or crew. MacKenzie has been running the show along with The Originals and Once Upon a Time veteran Christopher Hollier, but it’s MacKenzie who created the series (an update of Jason Katims’s Roswell, which ran from 1999 until 2002). MacKenzie said that she had already spoken with the writers and cast to help send the show toward season three with its best chance at success before she left the show.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the story, MacKenzie has been frustrated with Warner Bros. TV for some time, but the differences escalated after a June episode in which ITV2 in the U.K. edited an episode to “cut out a (pretty tame) love scene between two men and kept a (much more raunchy) heterosexual sex scene,” according to a tweet she made at the time. After accusing the foreign distributor of bigoted behavior, Warner Bros. was reportedly upset that they had to deal with the fallout from ITV.
ITV, for their part, blamed local regulations, suggesting that because of the time slot in which the show aired, younger audiences might be watching.
You can read her full statement, released on Twitter, below.
“This week, I made the difficult decision to resign from my role on Roswell, New Mexico. I obviously didn’t take this decision lightly, but ultimately due to fundamental differences, I’m departing and entrusting [Roswell, New Mexico] to capable hands. I’m so proud of what we built over the last two years, and I believe in the heart and soul of the show: asking tough questions, striving to make the world better, amplifying marginalized voices, and fighting the good fight.
“This cast is exquisitely talented, and there’s no kinder or harder working are in TV. I’ll be rooting for you guys (and of course continuing my nonprofit work to ease the burden the crew has experienced during the COVID-19 shutdown).
“Because there’s a lot of nonsense getting spread around, let me make it clear this decision has nothing to do with any of the cast, crew, or writers. I love them in an epic forever handprints-on-my-soul kinda way. Finding Liz Ortecho with Jeanine has been a joy. I think any fan who joined us for a glass of wine on Instagram Live during this shutdown knows there’s no ‘tension,’ so I’m just gonna go back to texting with her about the home reno projects we’re both working on and roll my eyes at that boring attempt to pit women against each other. What year is it?
“As for ~secret anonymous sources~ revealing that I wasn’t in the writer’s room as much as I’d have liked to be, TRUE TRUE TRUE. Shooting on location while writing in LA is so hard. Thank god for my co-showrunner/friend/partner/champion Chris Hollier; together we could be in two places at once.
“Over the last few months, the team and I broke the Season 3 story together, I had talks with the actors about the season character journeys. I put my finishing touches on the season premiere this week. But this is a business and there were fundamental disagreements about a couple of things that were and are very important to me.
“Here’s to the happiest of endings.”
