‘The Wilds’ Canceled by Prime Video After 2 Seasons

The YA survival series followed a “control group” of male high schoolers in its sophomore installment

the wilds season 2
Prime Video

“The Wilds” will be taking off from the runway for Season 3: Prime Video has canceled the popular YA survival series after two seasons, TheWrap has confirmed.

Season 2, which expanded the show’s narrative with the addition of an all-male high school “control group,” premiered on the streamer May 6, delayed by two-and-a-half years as a result of the pandemic.

Despite having premiered a year earlier, the series has drawn comparisons with the Emmy-nominated “Yellowjackets” (which began development and shooting on its pilot around the same time in 2020) for its focus on a group of girls who get stranded following a plane crash. That’s where the two shows’ similarities end: The misfortune the high schoolers in “The Wilds” face stems from a larger conspiracy experiment led by Dawn of Eve founder Gretchen Klein (Rachel Griffiths), who posits that women can run a better society against all obstacles. The girls are also left to fend for themselves on a deserted island (not the Canadian wilderness) and do not resort to cannibalism to survive.

From writers and executive producers Sarah Streicher (who created the series) and Amy B. Harris (who served as showrunner), the show’s second installment followed a new experimental group led by Seth (“The Society’s” Alex Fitzalan), which fails ahead of the scheduled “rescue” day 50. Twists and turns abound as secrets are revealed in both groups and (spoiler alert), the two strands eventually join together to uncover the truth about the island and their situation — only to realize they are still stuck there after their presumed escape.

“Prime Video remains committed to YA themed content as highlighted by the recent breakout hit series ‘Summer I Turned Pretty,’ ‘The Boys Presents: Diabolical’ and ‘Invincible,’ as well as the upcoming series Shelter, based on the first novel in the New York Times best-selling author Harlan Coben’s Mickey Bolitar trilogy,” a Prime Video spokesperson said.

“The intention was to have a Pyrrhic victory of sorts — that, yes, they’ve got Gretchen’s number, or at least Leah did, enough to force her to flee, but that they’re still very much under her boot heel in a way,” Streicher told TheWrap of Season 2 in a May interview. “And I think that is reflective of a lot of my own experience of coming of age, of adolescence…It’s like this battle for agency, and it’s like scrapping toward feeling like you have some level of control, and once you get it, you often realize, ‘Well, I had one thread of control, but actually, that doesn’t amount to much.’ You can take an inch but the powers that be will be taking a mile.”

“The Wilds” is also executive produced by the late Jamie Tarses of FanFare and Dylan Clark of Dylan Clark Productions. The series is co-produced by Amazon Studios and ABC Signature, part of Disney Television Studios.

Deadline was first to report the news.

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