On Wednesday, ABC announced they were cancelling Stumptown after just one season, surprising fans of the series as the network had renewed the series back in May and even as late as July there had been updates, including the announcement of a new co-showrunner, Monica Owusu-Breen. Reports of the series’ cancellation cited the show being unable to resume production in a timely fashion in terms of scheduling due to COVID-19, but that reason isn’t sitting well with fans. Soon after the cancellation announcement, fans took to social media to share their anger at the news.
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Stumptown debuted last fall as part of the 2019-2020 television series and starred Cobie Smulders as Dex Parios, a strong, assertive and sharp-witted veteran with a complicated love life, gambling debt and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon. Her military intelligence skills make her a great PI, but her unapologetic style puts her in the firing line of hardcore criminals and not quite in alliance with the police. In addition to Smulders, the series also starred Jake Johnson as Grey McConnell, Tantoo Cardinal as Sue Lynn Blackbird, Cole Sibus as Ansel Parios, Adrian Martinez as Tookie, with Camryn Manheim as Lieutenant Cosgrove and Michael Ealy as Detective Miles Hoffman.
Ahead of Stumptown‘s premiere last year, Smulders compared the training that went into her preparation for Stumptown to that of her work in other comic book inspired projects — specifically the Avengers movies.
“It’s always fun to do a job where you get to learn new skills,” Smulders said. “We had an amazing team do the pilot and will continue to do great sequences. I think the thing that’s very exciting about this show is, my character is not a superhero. She’s not really skilled but she’s a scrapper, and the fights we’re going to see throughout the show are going to be really dirty and really grounded and very realistic. I’m a woman and I’m going to come up against men who are a hundred pounds heavier than I am, so it’s finding ways to even out the playing field. That’s been really cool to choreograph and get into.
“There’s much more [hands-on training] on this because in all the Marvel stuff, Maria Hill has the power of the Bluetooth. She’s got them on speed dial but she’s not going after anybody. So, the training on this is much more intense.”
At this point, not all hope is lost for Stumptown and its fans. The critically acclaimed series will reportedly be shopped around to other outlets, but for now, fans are very upset about losing a show that many called the one bright spot in what has been an otherwise pretty bleak year.
Read on for fan reactions to the cancellation of Stumptown and let us know your thoughts in comments.
PLEASE
Please, for the love of everything, SAVE. STUMPTOWN. pic.twitter.com/eEG7e8pmFG
— Abby Spencer (@abbyraespencer) September 17, 2020
Like, this has been a thing for awhile now
I don’t understand, COVID was already a worldwide pandemic when it was renewed. #Stumptown https://t.co/1RTqgEEEu8
— ladyteruki (@ladyteruki) September 17, 2020
No reason to keep watching
@ABCNetwork The hell. With the end of Agents of Shield and now cancelling Stumptown there is absolutely no reason for me to watch your network this year. None. I mean you kept the ridiculous idiotic soap dramas, and reality shows. Which are for imbeciles.
— Nanci Fenstermaker (@Fensty119) September 17, 2020
So done
@CobieSmulders Are they serious #abc… they’re canceling #stumptown are they crazy ??? It’s one of the best shows on tv…. thats it, I’m done with #abc
— Eric Murray (@em7289) September 17, 2020
Few bright spots
VERY upset to hear @ABCNetwork has un-renewed (ie: canceled) @StumptownABC. Network tv has few bright spots. #Stumptown was one. Poor decision, #ABC. Guess we needed more bad reality and game shows. 2020 contInues to suck! @CobieSmulders #SaveStumptown pic.twitter.com/SYYH6Q2Bre
— Tony Scipione (@Seven_Soldiers) September 17, 2020
THIS
the way they’ll put 829282 season of greys but cancel stumptown 😻😻😻
— ً (@royalvirtuemoir) September 17, 2020
Hasn’t this pandemic taken enough away from us?
#stumptown cannot be cancelled. Please tell me this isn’t true. I don’t think there is a single show left to look forward to anymore. @StumptownABC please reverse this decision! This pandemic has taken quite enough from us already! Stumptown needs to stay!
— Rosalie (@11Rosalie11) September 17, 2020
We can’t have nice things
Can I not have nice things?! No Kenzie Gennaro no Stumptown what do they have against the detective stuff DAMN
— ♕ tess carter ♕ (@myromulanelnor) September 17, 2020
Crying
stumptown got me through basically all of this year i don’t even have words right now i’m just sitting here crying
— miya (@dexcparios) September 17, 2020
DANG YOU
Dang you @ABCNetwork #Stumptown https://t.co/0CWhyT8OCl pic.twitter.com/hNy5roPMLM
— Kacie (@PacBlue) September 17, 2020