Deadline.com is reporting that streaming giant Netflix has canceled GLOW, which was set to return for its fourth and final season. The cancellation was attributed to COVID-19 where many productions shut down.
“COVID has killed actual humans. It’s a national tragedy and should be our focus. COVID also apparently took down our show,” series creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch said in a statement to Deadline. “Netflix has decided not to finish filming the final season of GLOW. We were handed the creative freedom to make a complicated comedy about women and tell their stories. And wrestle. And now that’s gone. There’s a lot of sh*tty things happening in the world that are much bigger than this right now. But it still sucks that we don’t get to see these 15 women in a frame together again.”
Production on the fourth season of GLOW had started already and they were three weeks into filming when COVID-19 hit in mid-March. The pandemic forced production to shut down and the crew did not return to work ever since. GLOW had one episode ready and work started on the second episode when production was halted.
“We’ve made the difficult decision not to do a fourth season of GLOW due to COVID, which makes shooting this physically intimate show with its large ensemble cast especially challenging,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline. “We are so grateful to creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, Jenji Kohan and all the writers, cast and crew for sharing this story about the incredible women of GLOW with us and the world.”
Netflix had been working to get production back up and running for the past seven months but filming entirely in Los Angeles proved to be difficult as well as women wrestling each other made the show high-risk to produce safely during a pandemic due to physical contact. The earliest GLOW would have returned was in 2022 and with the significant delay and the increased costs of production, Netflix decided to pull the plug.
All of the series regulars have been paid for season 4 in full.
GLOW earned 15 Emmy nominations and three wins during its run.
