Netflix Animation: Cancellations and Renewals 2023

Dead End: Paranormal Park

Netflix canceled Dead End: Paranormal Park in January 2023. This one really hurts—Dead End was a horror comedy about a haunted amusement park, and it was so good. It even had a musical episode!

You heard that right. Broadway’s Beetlejuice, Alex Brightman, played the main character’s dog Pugsley, and the show took advantage of this to provide a bangin’ soundtrack that Netflix has somehow not yet put on Spotify? We can only assume this is because Netflix hates dogs and fun.

Fans of the Dead End franchise will at least get some closure from creator Hamish Steele’s upcoming graphic novel, The Divine Order. It’s not a direct continuation of the show but instead the third installment in the series of graphic novels that inspired the show. But that’s more than some series get!

Inside Job

We really thought Inside Job was safe. So many of Netflix’s early 2022 cancellations focused on unreleased kids’ shows—Bone, The Twits, Toil and Trouble, Pearl, Dino Daycare, and Boons and Curses,^2,3 to name a few.

But adult animation as a medium has always struggled to be taken seriously in the US. Netflix canceled Inside Job, an adult comedy about the Deep State, in January 2023. The premise was always a little sketchy (there’s only so much joking you can do about conspiracy theories before it gets unnervingly close to harmful IRL beliefs), but it was still a fun show with a lot of heart.

Inside Job’s second half released on November 18, 2022, and although it ended on a major cliffhanger, with mad scientist Reagan finally learning more about the shadowy hooded figures behind Cognito, Inc., we’ll never know more than that.

The Midnight Gospel

The Midnight Gospel was a weird, psychedelic show about an interdimensional podcaster that premiered in 2020 and was canceled in 2022. We imagine this was a tough decision for Netflix since it waited two years of radio silence before pulling the plug, but we may never know for sure.

Apparently, the show’s crew was hoping for a second season, and many fans were as well. Major bummer!

Q-Force

Q-Force was canceled in August 2022, almost a full year after the first season aired. We’re super bummed about this one (and a little bitter that Netflix let us live with hope for so long).

The LGBTQ+ spy comedy received a lot of backlash before the show even premiered thanks to a sloppy teaser trailer. By the time Netflix released a better trailer, the damage had already been done.

But Q-Force turned out to be a decent show, despite its mere 33% critics rating and 76% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The plot centered around queer characters overcoming discrimination in a straight-male-dominated government organization. It’s too bad Netflix treated its renewal the same way the show’s antagonists treated the titular team.

Castlevania: Nocturne

Castlevania, the vampire action-drama based on the video games of the same name, aired for four seasons to critical acclaim, and its finale promised the birth of a new multi-series franchise. Over the past year, we’ve gotten hints of what the franchise’s future will look like.

The previously untitled spinoff is now called Castlevania: Nocturne, and it takes place several generations after the events of the first series. It follows Richter Belmont and Maria Renard, characters from the game Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, during the French Revolution.

Fan favorite Alucard will be there too, since the series is also mixing in elements from Symphony of the Night, and we’re glad to hear it. It wouldn’t feel like Castlevania without Dracula’s emo son.

Aggretsuko

We have good and bad news for Aggretsuko fans. The good news is that Aggretsuko is renewed for a fifth season, which will air February 16 on Netflix.

The bad news is that Aggretsuko’s fifth season will be its last. It looks like a planned finale, though, rather than a cancellation. Netflix may hate dogs, but it loves Sanrio’s death-metal furry office workers.

The Dragon Prince

The Dragon Prince returned for its fourth season in November 2022, and will continue for three more seasons after that. We’re relieved to see Netflix committed to a series for seven whole seasons! That’s pretty rare in the modern streaming landscape.

The Dragon Prince is about two princes who team up with an elf to raise a newborn dragon prince, hence the title of the show. The series has a pretty deep mythos and elaborate worldbuilding, and its success is impressive, considering it’s not based on any video games or comics.

We’re just hoping Netflix sticks to its word and doesn’t reverse any of those season orders.

Scissor Seven

Scissor Seven isn’t getting canceled any time soon. While we won’t get an English-dubbed season four for probably another year, it’s currently airing for viewers in China. There are also mumblings of a tie-in movie and several more seasons after that, so this series is a pretty safe bet if you’re looking to invest in a long-term show without getting your heart broken again.

Technically, Netflix doesn’t produce Scissor Seven; it only dubs and distributes it. So if the streaming giant is looking to cut costs, it’s probably safe. But we’d be lying if we said we wouldn’t be devastated if, for some reason, this show ended before its time.

It’s hard to pin down Scissor Seven. Sometimes, it’s a lighthearted comedy about a hairdresser fumbling his way through a series of failed assassinations while befriending a talking chicken. Other times, it’s a serious story where the melodrama is as high as the stakes. We’re too invested in this show to quit on it now.

Arcane

Arcane is such a remarkable show, and it’s easy to forget that it’s a League of Legends tie-in. It’s produced by Riot Games and not animated in-house by Netflix, but that’s probably a good thing, considering the vast amounts of money it costs to produce each episode. It’s probably safe from Netflix’s wild whims.

In fact, Netflix renewed Arcane for a second season back in 2021, shortly after the first one aired. You can count on more steampunk-y, sci-fi drama at some point in the very distant future.

It takes a long time to produce each season, but we’re willing to wait another six years as long as we find out what happens after that, er, explosive season one finale.

Disenchantment

It seems like we should have gotten news about this adult comedy’s renewal by now, but right now Disenchantment has neither been renewed nor canceled.

Following in the footsteps of Futurama, the Matt Groening-produced show is about a rebellious princess as she grows into her responsibilities to her family and kingdom. It leans into genre tropes of fantasy and science fiction and somehow manages to balance equal parts sincerity and goofiness. It deserves another renewal!

The show has already released four parts (or technically, two episode orders—Netflix is so weird about seasons), but we don’t know if the show is still a priority for Netflix. We’d love to see at least one more episode order to wrap things up, but for now, we’ll have to wait and see.

Gudetama

With the death of Aggretsuko comes the rise of another Sanrio property, Gudetama. That lazy egg isn’t just flooding every FYE and Five Below with merch—it also has its own Netflix show.

Gudetama premiered in December 2022, but we haven’t heard any news about whether it’s been renewed for a second season. It seems like they have to renew it, right? They’ve already invested so much into stuffed animals, themed cookbooks, and other novelty items—it seems silly not to.

DOTA: Dragon’s Blood

Netflix loves video game adaptations, and it loves animated shows about dragons, so this one hits all the important points. It’s about a Dragon Knight—someone who, as the name suggests, is sworn to hunt dragons—who finds himself possessed by a dragon and dragged into a conflict between humans, elves, and dragons.

It’s gotten three seasons so far, the most recent airing in August 2022, and the story would suggest it’s going to continue for at least a little longer. But we haven’t heard anything definitive about DOTA’s fourth season yet. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we find out.

Dragon Age: Absolution

What did we tell you? Netflix loves video game dragons.

Dragon Age: Absolution came out in December 2022, and tied into the events of the 2014 video game Dragon Age: Inquisition. It was received positively by critics, but Netflix hasn’t confirmed whether the show will be canceled or renewed yet.

We’re always down for more animated fantasy TV, though, so we’ll keep an eye out.

Bee and PuppyCat

At this point, we’re used to not knowing anything about Bee and PuppyCat’s fate. The show’s second season was in development hell for so long that entire streaming platforms came and went in the interim.

But we really hope Netflix gives this colorful, trippy magical girl show another outing. The previous season ended with a big change in status quo for all of the characters, and we’re dying to know where their adventures take them next. We have so many questions! We deserve answers, Netflix!