'Warrior Nun' Season 2 Almost Featured Even *Less* Of The Sapphic Love Story

While Warrior Nun fans have been devastated at the show’s cancelation after season two, and frequently wondered how much centering a queer relationship played into its demise, it turns out there’s a world where we wouldn’t have even gotten as much of the love story as we did.

The beloved Netflix series followed Ava Silva (Alba Baptista) as she discovers she’s become part of an ancient order thanks to a holy artifact that resurrected her and granted her powers. Along the way, she becomes close with Beatrice (Kristina Tonteri-Young), and their relationship very gradually blossoms into something romantic.

Showrunner Simon Barry recently spoke to The OCS Newsletter about how his plans for season two of the show was received by executives over at Netflix and, in news that sadly does not shock whatsoever, it seems as if they weren’t wholly on board with his interest in exploring the Ava/Beatrice of it all.

“I think what happened was, as writers we wanted to emphasize the Beatrice/Ava relationship, in stronger terms constantly,” he said. “I think Netflix at times was worried that that was not going to satisfy the audience as much as the story parts were. They didn’t want to make a trade of that relationship for other aspects of what the show was doing.”

He went on to explain that Hollywood execs wanting more of the same and not wanting to shake things up from something that initially worked is common. And while that’s true, if Ava had had a male love interest in the show, it’s difficult to imagine the same hesitation would have existed. If anything, it likely would have been more prominent in the first season—or at least would have seemed that way. We’ve all had media we love where the chemistry between same-sex characters is wildly obvious but seems to go right over most straight people’s heads, whereas if a man and woman even look at each other, their entire future seems to be mapped out on the spot.

At any rate, Barry says he and the writers really pushed back, wanting to include more of the sapphic story that fans have come to cherish.

“When you look at season 1, and you look at their relationship, that was very much undertones and suggestive, whereas in season 2, we really wanted to bust it open,” he said. “And I think the network was a little nervous about that.”

Although the campaign to save the series for season three initially sounded promising, fans recently discovered that the “salvation” is coming in the form of something wholly different and not the version of Warrior Nun they’ve loved and supported so fervently. Maybe one day we’ll get sapphic shows that are allowed to stick around and grow over the years instead of ones where the creative teams have to fight tooth and nail for just a handful of episodes before getting cast aside.