How Shadowhunters could be saved

From Digital Spy

June 5 was a dark day for Shadowhunters fans – they found out that the telly adaptation of their favourite Young Adult novel series would be coming to an early conclusion, before the show had the chance to cover the final two books.

Of course, The Shadowhunters from the books and show protect the world of 'mundanes' or 'mundies', from dark forces from beyond their world – and so fans, in their turn, set out to protect their beloved show from the dark forces of cancellation.

And they did it in a series of increasingly inventive ways.

The social-media campaign

A few days after the news landed, star Katherine McNamara was attending an Australian Comic Con, and was asked how she felt about the cancellation. She encouraged fans to tweet about the show, in the hope that their efforts would be noticed by those who could save the series.

"I love the show and I would love to finish it out. Hopefully your tweets will encourage something to happen," she said.

"If [the hashtags] make a difference, amazing. If not, we've got 10 more amazing episodes in the can and we're gonna shoot the most kickass finale you've ever seen."

This can be seen as ground zero for a movement that's unlike any previous show-saving campaign. If McNamara hadn't been so supportive of the idea of a hashtag campaign, giving fans potential inspiration in the process, perhaps #SaveShadowHunters wouldn't have grown into the behemoth it most definitely is.

Petition

Like so many other pop-culture properties – hello 'Release the Snyder Cut' and hello 'Remake The Last Jedi' – a petition came after the social-media campaign, albeit one that was sweeter than those two toxic examples.

Not only have the fandom collected more than 100,000 signatures, they've also raised thousands for a good cause.

They've so far collected $18k and counting for The Trevor Project, an organisation that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention to the LGBTQ+ community, which is genuinely lovely.

The plane

Here's where things get a little bit more inventive.

On June 22, a plane flew over Netflix's LA headquarters with a giant #SaveShadowhunters banner trailing behind it. That's one way to tweet a hashtag.

While it's not clear if the Netflix staff saw the plane, showrunner Todd Slavkin definitely did.

The billboard ad

The next stage of the campaign came a week later, when an impressive billboard went live in Times Square.

It was, once again, promoting the #SaveShadowhunters hashtag – we've seen political campaigns less organised than this. Bravo, Shadowhunters stans.

The subway ad

The campaign went global, with a subway station advert in South Korea, which is pretty mind-boggling, really.

There are two ads in total. The first, located in Gwanghwamun Gate – which is near to where the Netflix team is based – went up on July 11 and runs until August 10. The second billboard went up on July 13 and will run until August 12.

So, a plane near the LA Netflix office, a billboard around the corner from the New York Netflix office, and a subway ad on the commute to the South Korean Netflix office. We're starting to sense a bit of a pattern here.

How it could be saved

It's intriguing that fans seem to have targeted Netflix as their brightest hope, as Amazon actually makes a lot more sense. Part of the reason Amazon picked up the (super-expensive) Lord Of The Rings rights was said to be because Amazon is still primarily a bookseller. So, what better place for a show based on a bunch of YA novels?

Admittedly Amazon has never picked up a Netflix property before. In fact, nobody has ever picked up a Netflix property before. But there's always a first time. They picked up The Expanse from Syfy, after all.

So, Shadowhunters fans, if you're planning to swoop a helicopter trailing a #SaveShadowhunters banner over Netflix London, or sail a ship alongside Netflix Miami with a #SaveShadowhunters trawler attached, maybe crack an atlas and see where Amazon's offices are located too. Just a thought.

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