There was only a slim chance that Robert Kirkman’s Outcast could go to a third season, and that is now gone. “There are no further plans for Outcast at this time,” a spokesman for the network said in a statement.
The news comes as a little surprise. Outcast had been on the back burner at Cinemax, with its second season finally airing this summer, two and a half years after it was ordered and about two years after it was produced. The options on the cast have long lapsed, and everyone had moved on.
A few months after Cinemax renewed Outcast for Season 2 in March 2016 ahead of its series premiere, the network overhauled its programming strategy, pulling away from expensive, dark hometown series like Outcast in favor of fun, high-octane, action, pulpy dramas done in a cost-effective way primarily as international co-productions.
Outcast, whose Season 1 ratings were below expectations, spent 2017 on the bench at Cinemax while its second season aired on Fox International channels in spring 2017. Season 2 was scheduled and ran on Cinemax this past summer, premiering on July 20.
“We’re going to see if we can grow its audience,” Cinemax programming president Kari Antholis told Deadline last fall about Season 2 and beyond. “I think part of the lesson there is that we assumed we could find Kirkman’s audience in our Cinemax audience, but we have to find better ways of doing that. We tried to guide the upcoming second season towards being more adrenalized.”
Outcast’s Season 2 ratings were down from Season 1.
Created and executive produced by Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Outcast explored how people cope with extreme circumstances while protecting the ones they love. Patrick Fugit starred as Kyle Barnes, a young man who has been plagued by demonic possession all his life. With the help of Reverend Anderson, played by Philip Glenister, a preacher who believes he is a soldier in God’s holy war against the forces of evil, Kyle tries to protect those he holds most dear, now that the otherworldly threats prove greater in scope and number than anticipated.
Season 2 cast also included Wrenn Schmidt, Megan Holter, Reg E. Cathey, Kate Lyn Sheil, Allison Barnes, Julia Crockett, David Denman and Brent Spiner.
Outcast, whose formal cancellation was first reported by THR, was based on the Skybound/Image comic title by creator Kirkman and artist Paul Azaceta. The series was produced by Fox International Studios for Cinemax; created and executive produced by Kirkman; executive produced by showrunner Chris Black, David Alpert, Sharon Tal Yguado and Sue Naegle.
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