Stumptown Star Reveals Surprising Detail About Cancelled Series' Second Season

By Nicole Drum

It's been three years since ABC renewed and then, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, un-renewed the Cobie Smulders-starring series Stumptown leaving fans of the series based on Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, and Justin Greenwood's comic books with not only just one season of the promising series, but plenty of questions about what might have been for Smulders' Dex Parios. Now, series star Jake Johnson is opening up about some of the details of what Season 2 would have looked like — and it would have been a very different series.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter (via TVLine) Johnson, who played Grey McConnell, explained that the series would have been "totally different" and would have seen Dex with a new love interest — and fight scenes — every week.

"It was going to be a totally different show in a very exciting way," Johnson said. "Everything was building. Every single episode [would have had] a new love interest for Cobie, kissing and fight scenes every week."

The big shift would have been a product of the series having a new co-showrunner, with Marvel's Agents of SHIELD executive producer Monica Owusu-Breen set to work alongside series creator Jason Richman, replacing Matt Olmstead. The series would have also had a brand-new writers room for the season.

What Was Stumptown About?

Stumptown debuted as part of the 2019-2020 television series and starred 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.

Why Was Stumptown Cancelled?

Despite being received positively by both audiences and critics — and gaining a Season 2 renewal — Stumptown was ultimately cancelled by ABC. The network cited being unable to resume production in a timely fashion in terms of scheduling needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time as a contributing factor. The studio, ABC Signature, shopped the series to other outlets, but was ultimately unable to find a new home for the series. Johnson recalled that the cast was informed of the cost of COVID testing that would have been required for a second season production and that it was just too high.

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"I get word that the amount of COVID testing they need to do is wild," Johnson said. "They have no idea how to do any of it with social distancing. So, we got a very honest call where they just tell us that the cost of COVID made it so high that we'd need like Seinfeld-in-the'90s success to justify making Season 2."

What do you think about the revelation about what Season 2 of Stumptown would have been like? Let us know in the comment section.

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