Walker Independence Star Opens Up About Series Cancellation

Last month, The CW cancelled Walker Independence after just one season on the network and now, series star Katherine McNamara is opening up about it. In an upcoming appearance on The Wayne Ayers Podcast (via Just Jared), McNamara said that she was told about the show’s cancellation by one of the showrunners and one of the producers and that while she loved working on the series, for her the biggest takeaway is that she and the rest of the cast did everything they could.

“I found out, you know, one of the showrunners and one of the producers called me and obviously it’s not the call we want to get,” McNamara said. “It’s not the news we wanted to hear, but I think the show and the story will always have a special place in all our hearts.”

She continued, “It was such an incredible experience to get to work on a show and tell a story that meant so much to all of us and with people who really, we all meant so much to each other. Nothing in this industry lasts forever and the fact that we can walk away from that story knowing that we did everything we could, and we loved our time doing it and the people we did it with. I think that’s the biggest takeaway.”

What is Walker Independence about?

Set in the late 1800s, Walker Independence followed Abby Walker (Katherine McNamara), an affluent and tough-minded Bostonian who embarks on a journey out west with her husband Liam (guest star Brandon Sklenar), but her husband is murdered before her eyes. After crossing paths with Cailan (Justin Johnson Cortez), a curious Apache trader, Abby arrives in the town of Independence, Texas where she encounters the diverse and eclectic residents running from their pasts, chasing their dreams, and keeping their own secrets, including Kate Carver (Katie Findlay), an idiosyncratic burlesque dancer with perhaps too keen an interest in Abby’s origins, and Kai (Lawrence Kao), a soulful Chinese immigrant who runs a local restaurant/laundry and offers Abby friendship without agenda. Abby also literally runs into Hoyt Rawlins (Matt Barr), a slippery rogue, thief and con artist with a dented heart of gold who quickly eyes Abby as a mark, until she turns the tables on him. In seeking justice for her husband, Abby encounters Independence’s noble deputy sheriff, Augustus (Philemon Chambers), and his new boss, Sheriff Tom Davidson (Greg Hovanessian), who she has reason to believe is a very bad man indeed. Abby and Hoyt soon find themselves precariously aligned, both seeking to uncover the truth about the identity of Abby’s husband’s killer, and vow to save Independence – a frontier boomtown where nothing is what it seems.

Jared Padalecki, who was an executive producer for the series, announced after news of the series’ cancellation broke that they would be “aggressively looking for a place” for the series to go.

“We are aggressively looking for a place that Walker Independence can land,” Padalecki began. “I think cancelled is maybe the most common word used, but I think a better way to look at it is that Walker Independence will not be on The CW next year.”

“I’m so proud of Walker Independence. It’s such a great show. I think it’s a show that’s needed,” Padalecki continues. “We absolutely are thrilled about the show, proud of the show, and we all feel like it belongs somewhere people can see it. We love the cast. We love the writing. We love the setting. We love the storylines that it’s telling. It’s storylines unlike any other ‘Western’ show on TV or streaming right now.”

Are you sad Walker Independence was cancelled? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.