Amazon Cancels Z: The Beginning of Everything

Months after renewing Z: The Beginning of Everything, Amazon has evidently changed its mind and canceled it.

This news is somewhat bizarre, as Amazon had reportedly already spent $7 million on the show’s recently ordered second season. It was already in preproduction—writers and designer were working on scripts and sets. Amazon has said that it plans to spend less money on its original programming in 2018, and apparently they took a hard look at Z and decided to scuttle the project, regardless of the money they’d already spent.

Z: The Beginning of Everything, which starred Christina Ricci as famous socialite Zelda Fitzgerald, received decent (if unenthusiastic) reviews. The show was based on Therese Anne Fowler’s Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and followed Zelda (Ricci) through her marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald (David Hoflin).

THR first reported the cancellation, and cited Vox’s March story about Amazon’s sexist treatment of female-led series.

Read our review of Z’s first season here.