(FOX)

The chances for a third season of the Prodigal Son series got a little slimmer today.  HBO Max has opted not to rescue the cancelled FOX series and order a third season.

A crime thriller series, the Prodigal Son TV show stars Tom Payne, Lou Diamond Phillips, Aurora Perrineau, Frank Harts, Keiko Agena, Bellamy Young, Halston Sage, Michael Sheen, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Season two guest stars include Christian Borle and Michael Potts. In the story, Malcolm Bright (Payne) is an extraordinary criminal psychologist who knows how killers think and how their minds work. In the 1990s, his father, Dr. Martin Whitly (Sheen), was a notorious serial killer called “The Surgeon” who killed at least 23 people. Since murder is “the family business”, Malcolm uses his twisted genius for good, to help the NYPD solve crimes and stop killers. He works alongside his longtime mentor, Gil Arroyo (Phillips), and two detectives — no-nonsense Dani Powell (Perrineau) and JT Tarmel (Harts), a born-and-bred New Yorker who questions whether Bright is a psychopath himself. In season two, Malcolm must deal with the repercussions of the first season finale and his father seeks to deepen his relationship with his prodigal son.

HBO Max and Warner Bros. TV (the lead studio behind the series) are both under the same corporate umbrella and the streaming service was considered the most likely option to continue the show — especially since HBO Max has the rights to stream the first two seasons. Deadline reports that the streamer “didn’t have space” and chose not to order season three.

Word is that Warner Bros. TV is still trying to find the drama new home. The studio has been successful in saving shows in the past, most notably when Lucifer was picked up by Netflix after FOX had cancelled it. A key difference is that Netflix had the rights to stream past seasons of Lucifer while it appears only HBO Max has the rights for the two existing seasons of Prodigal Son.