By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
First Kill Showrunner Reveals Why She Thinks Netflix Canceled The Show
Fans are furious at the loss of yet another queer female-driven show.
The loss of TV shows centered around LGBTQ+ female characters in 2022 has been truly staggering, and fans of Netflix’s teen vampire romance First Kill are the latest lining up to grieve as the streamer canceled the show after just one season. Now, the showrunner is weighing in on what she thinks went wrong.
First Kill, which is based on a short story by V. E. Schwab, centers around a vampire (Sarah Catherine Hook) tasked with making her first kill to join a powerful family of vampires. However, she ends up falling for another teen (Imani Lewis) who turns out to be a vampire hunter.
Despite not performing that well with critics, the series meant a lot to fans who were excited to revisit a teen soap drama with a sapphic romance as the focal point, especially one with a Black lead.
Showrunner Felicia D. Henderson praised Netflix for greenlighting the show at all, noting in conversation with The Daily Beast that they “licensed the IP, paid for a pilot script, and gave it a healthy production budget.”
Alas, sources told Deadline that First Kill didn’t hit the numbers Netflix hoped to see, something seemingly reiterated by Henderson saying she was told that “the completion rate wasn’t high enough.”
Generally, Henderson believes that the reason for that might have to do with the marketing of the show. She explained:
“The art for the initial marketing was beautiful. I think I expected that to be the beginning and that the other equally compelling and important elements of the show—monsters vs. monster hunters, the battle between two powerful matriarchs, etc.—would eventually be promoted, and that didn’t happen.”
Fans had felt similarly, with many pointing out that they hadn’t even seen much marketing leading up to the premiere of First Kill.
Attention has also been drawn to how the show pulled nearly double the numbers asHeartstopper, the LGBTQ+ teen drama centered around white male characters. And yet, the latter was immediately renewed for two more seasons.
\u201cand first kill did these numbers in a WEEK be fucking fr.\u201d— ceo of kory (@ceo of kory) 1659488847
\u201cand clearly the show didn\u2019t cost too much to make we all saw the effects\u201d— ceo of kory (@ceo of kory) 1659488735
\u201crenewing heartstopper for two more seasons and cancelling first kill when it pulled in over 2.2million more views than heartstopper in the first two weeks\u2026 im so unbelievably tired of this\u201d— katie \u2661\u2019s alex \ud83e\udee7 (@katie \u2661\u2019s alex \ud83e\udee7) 1659489377
Overall, the cast and crew of First Kill have come out to express their disappointment over the show’s cancelation as well as their gratitude that it ever got to exist at all. But fans are still frustrated that investing in a show with queer female leads has once again ended in swift heartbreak.
RELATED | Trans-Inclusive Batgirl Movie Has Been Canceled Despite Being Finished
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
Rachel Kiley is presumably a writer and definitely not a terminator. She can usually be found crying over queerbaiting in the Pitch Perfect franchise or on Twitter, if not both.
