A League of Their Own co-creator Will Graham recently opened up about the show’s surprise cancelation, encouraging queer fans not to lose hope in having their stories told.
Although ALOTO was initially renewed for a shortened second season, Prime Video announced last week that it would not be making more episodes of the show, with insiders placing the blame on the WGA and SAG strikes. Co-creator Abbi Jacobson refuted that nonsense, which Graham echoed as part of a lengthy Twitter thread he wrote on Wednesday.
He also confirmed that the creative team didn’t learn of the cancelation until everyone else did—a jarringly callous move from the people in charge that reflects ongoing concerns from writers and actors that executives in the streaming landscape have been undervaluing creatives and treating them as interchangeable and disposable.
But mostly, Graham took the opportunity to thank fans for caring so deeply about ALOTO, showing enthusiastic support for everyone involved, and adding their own creativity to expand the world of the show through fandom.
“I’ve never experienced a response to a television show that’s as deep, personal, creative and meaningful as what the fans have done with League,” he wrote. “You made a community, you found each other and found joy, which of course is what the show is about. In many more ways than I would ever have let myself imagine while we were making it, you literally bring the show to life every day.”
Graham has spoken about the seemingly endless parade of cancelations for queer shows — particularly queer shows that center on female characters — in the past, and urged fans not to feel disheartened by it happening yet again.
“In a time when all queer people are personally and politically under attack across the country and [the Human Rights Campaign] has declared a ‘state of emergency,’ my biggest fear is that the many queer fans of League will take this reversal as one more invalidation, one more blow, one more effect of the general politicization of our identities,” he admitted. “In case anyone needs to hear it: You are not small, niche, modest, off-putting or marginal, and neither are your stories.”
One optimistic takeaway from Graham’s thread is that it seems the creative team behind the show intends to try to find a home for a second season.
While the number of shows that get canceled and immediately find a new network or streamer to allow them to continue telling their stories is small, the recent success of the campaign to save Warrior Nun—which was canceled by Netflix but will reportedly return somewhere to be announced after the strikes as a movie trilogy—may give ALOTO fans hope.
“If we don’t find a good path forward, I will still know that League did what it came here to do and, in its own small way, changed the world,” he wrote. “And that’s because of all of you.”
You can read Graham’s entire message to fans below:
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