(Photo by: James Dittiger/SYFY)
Fans of The Magicians were surprised by the cancellation of this SyFy series recently. It was announced last week that the series will wrap on April 1 with the end of the current season, and those behind the series knew the end was near when the season began.
In an interview with TV Insider, Sera Gamble said the following about how she felt about the future of the season at the start of season five of the Syfy series:
“We had the sense going into this season that Syfy, in particular as our first platform, was kind of hitting the point of ‘The cup is full and there’s no more room.’”
Those involved did try to find a new network for the series, but that search failed. John McNamara spoke about that search:
“None of them seemed in the end like a perfect financial or creative fit. And so we reluctantly just decided, ‘Well at least we have this season finale that was crafted to also be a series finale.’ It was kind of always going to pull double duty.”
The cast has also spoken about the decision to end The Magicians. Sera Gamble revealed that the cast was emotional about the series coming to a close:
“Everyone is pretty savvy about how the business works. All the writers, the actors, our whole team. And so coming into this season, everyone was pretty level headed and aware that we had hit a certain point in the lifespan of this kind of show. And people were really emotional about it, but in many ways, that was because we’ve created a family over the last several years that really wanted to do right by the show. So aside from the musical that came out of John’s moment of denial, we tried not to indulge in any denial about it. We wanted to make sure it was a really satisfying conclusion. And so when Henry and I wrote the finale, there really wasn’t a difference in approach to writing it because I honestly never counted on there being another season.”
Several members of the cast went to social media to talk about the series ending. Check out their posts below.
View this post on Instagram
So honored to have been part of this show. @serathegamble and @johnthemcnamara are brilliant creators and the cast is so wonderful. Can’t wait to see more of all their work in future projects <3 https://t.co/0dgpOxXT74
— Felicia Day (@feliciaday) March 3, 2020
What do you think? Are you sad to see The Magicians end next month?
i think you should try harder to get another network to pick up the show,i am not ready to say goodbye and i know no one else is either. first they took away Q anbd now without warning they cancel the whole show. im not ever going to let myself get attached to another show on this network, i dont trust them any more. im so sad about this ..i love this show , i love every single charcter, i couldnt even pick who my favorite one was cause i love them all.
I CANNOT BELIEVE that the Magicians is CANCELLED!! I am Just finding out NOW after watching the Last Show and saying to myself, “what is this??—sounds like Something Other than the Season Finale?” I Am DEVASTATED~The Magicians made my Days/Weeks/Months worth Enduring because I could Look Forward to THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION IN A LOOONNNGGG WHILE! THIS is the BIGGEST MISTAKE that SYFY Channel could EVER HAVE MADE. I dont think I can SUPPORT a Channel that is THIS Out of Touch with the World~RATINGS?, WHO Calculates and Tallies THESE RATINGS??? Signed, ONE of the MILLIONS of Viewers LOST… Read more »
one of the best shows ever. the cast is what made it so good. the writers usually kept it fresh and fun . especially loved summer bishil and will watch anything she chooses to appear in. a fine actress, well they all were in this show. such a fun show.
Not surprising the writers only have themselves to blame the wat they killed off the main character from the books in a TV show that was already starting to loose viewers. They should have known they would lose more viewers when they could not afford too.
One of those cases where all you can really hope for is a decent wrap up. Its great that they ended last season saying that Quentin wasnt the “main character” and proved it by making a season without him. They story didnt lose its core elements, but even I can tell that they couldnt keep making up disaster after disaster for every season. Only show I know that did it is Supernatural and im pretty sure some would say they lost its stride.
I lost interest in Magicians somewhere in season 2, I think it was. My guess was the writers just weren’t capable of creating a script without tons of foul language. Too many other shows are doing the same thing. Cussing doesn’t make it real, it just makes it boring. If I wanna hear that kind of language, I can go down to the mall.
I am very disappointed upon hearing this news. The Magicians has been my favorite show. Since season 1 episode 1. I really enjoyed the lack of censorship. Which makes a show? Seem more real and lifelike to me. I’m not a very emotional person. Just ask my exes. But like other people Take On Me also brought tears to my eyes. My favorite episode was season 3 episode 9 all that Josh Thank God for Netflix. I just watch it over and over. The Syfy channel has been disappointing over the years. As soon as they started. Putting WWE or… Read more »
I really liked the show and was hoping for a lot more time with it.
The limited platform streaming didnt help in the beginning.
I actually cried during “Take on me”, ans that’s not an easy thing to accomplish. This season, except a few episodes with quality story twist, is just boring me to death, almost feels like a chore watching it, some scenes are reality-show level. The dark king is bland and the homosexuality dillema makes me roll my eyes (feels forced for diversity sake). New characters appear and disappear from nowhere without any backstory or meaning, like Plum or the “couple”, people who didn’t read the books probably don’t get it at all. I ******* loved this show and now I’m almost… Read more »
This is not surprising. This is what SyFy does. Cancel after 5 seasons. It’s why I don’t get invested in anything they put out. Doesn’t matter how well it does, they cancel it. Basically stop supporting syfu until they stop killing off good shows after 5 seasons. They will never learn of people just jump on the next one, which will again just end after 5 seasons.
A lot of these non Hollywood production companies do this to keep people celery down at the 5-year Mark they start asking for a whole lot more money because they are worth it and they are the people that draw the fans and. These companies just want a couple years of super high ratings to cash in and then leave before it cost them anything. It’s the way of the world it’s sad but it’s absolutely true
5 is a good number. Too many great shows get dumped at 3. or even 2. Shortly before SciFi became SyFy they seemed to lose all sense of reason. I agree with you about not investing time in that channel. If it’s worth watching, it will wind up somewhere else later, either as a retread or just ready for streaming. It’s easier to be sure that the show had a reasonable conclusion, too.
This is my favorite show on TV. I am sad to see it end! Just praying someone will pick it up.
Heart broken, I guess I’ll have to hit the bookstore for my fill of Fillory.
Netflix needs to pick them up
I absolutely adore The Magicians and pray that Netflix can pick them up if Syfy wants to give them up.
After they killed the only life long depressed bi “main” character on TV, they earned this. It was a betrayal, and I want to say I feel bad, but I don’t. The actors, tho, suffer thanks to the idiocy of those in charge.
Magicians. A favorite show that always surprised me; great storyline/scripts. The cast ensemble was brilliant! I am going to miss my weekly visit, whether it be at Brakebills, or Fillory. Farewell.
Wonder if the writers regret throwing shade at Netflix now that no one will pick up the show.