‘Minx’ Canceled Again After Getting Reprieve By Starz

Nellie Andreeva
·2-min read

Starz will not be proceeding with a third season of 1970s-set series Minx.

The news is not surprising. Minx star Jake Johnson told Deadline last month that he did not expect a Season 3 renewal for the period erotic comedy, whose Season 2 finale aired Sept. 8.

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Starz last January stepped in to rescue Minx, starring Ophelia Lovibond and Johnson, following the series’ cancellation by Max (then HBO Max) as part of cost-cutting tax write-offs while production was wrapping on Season 2. The premium network, which is in the process of cutting ties with owner Lionsgate, picked up both Season 1 and the unaired Season 2 of Minx, which is produced by Lionsgate Television. Both seasons will remain on the Starz app and all major platforms.

Speaking with Deadline, Johnson, who had cut his hair short in anticipation of the cancellation, referenced of Minx‘s first axing and the challenges the show faced by its second season launching days into the SAG-AFTRA strike, with the cast not being able to promote it.

“I think the move to Starz, I think HBO kind of doing their HBO thing, or HBO Max, whatever it’s called now, I think that was brutal for [the show],” he said. “Then, I think the strike coming out right as we were trying to promote it…My guess is you can’t beat something up that many times and keep going.”

The official decision on Minx follows Starz’s cancellation last month of Shining Vale after two seasons, with the horror comedy starring Courteney Cox also removed from the network’s digital platforms.

Shining Vale and Minx were Starz’s last remaining current comedy series, with their end signaling a comedy retreat.

As Deadline reported last month, according to sources, Starz executives in private conversations with producers have lamented that comedy is not working on the network.

Starz has about a half-dozen upcoming scripted series, all of them dramas. Sources inside the network have insisted that the network is not pulling out of the comedy business and may develop half-hour projects in the future catering to Starz’s target audiences of women and underrepresented communities.

Created by Ellen Rapoport, who also served as showrunner, Minx has been well reviewed and praised for its storytelling that celebrates sexuality, inclusion and the female gaze.

The comedy is set in 1970s Los Angeles and centers around Joyce (Lovibond), an earnest young feminist who joins forces with a low-rent publisher (Johnson) to create the first erotic magazine for women.

The series also stars Idara Victor, Jessica Lowe, Lennon Parham, Michael Angarano, and Oscar Montoya.

Rapoport executive produced alongside Paul Feig and Dan Magnante for Feigco Entertainment, Ben Karlin and Rachel Lee Goldenberg, who also directed the pilot. Johnson served as a co-executive producer.

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