Netflix's Warrior Nun Is Coming Back From The Dead As A Movie Trilogy
A fan campaign to save a Netflix show actually worked: according to The Hollywood Reporter, the previously canceled 2020 series "Warrior Nun" is set to be resurrected with three feature films. This news comes just weeks after series creator Simon Barry teased some type of return for the fantasy story, though THR reports that he noted it won't come from Netflix. "Warrior Nun" follows a young woman who wakes up after dying with new abilities that land her in the middle of an ongoing battle between heaven and hell. In a new video posted to the website Warrior Nun Saved, executive producer Dean English noted that the trilogy could also launch a "Warrior Nun" universe, which he says "could expand into film and TV series following characters that we already know."
The show's second season, released in 2022, was thought to be the last, but as with many a show that's ended too soon at the hands of the major streamer, "Warrior Nun" became subject to a passionate ongoing fan campaign after its premature cancelation. Fans dug the show's action, mythology, and queer romance (an element that seems increasingly common among canceled TV shows), and as Looper's Mike Bedard succinctly put it in a piece about why the show deserves a return, "The 'Warrior Nun' fanbase is loud." All that noise finally paid off in July 2023, when Barry tweeted, "Today I'm happy to officially report that because of your combined voices, passion and amazing efforts -#WarriorNun will return and is going to be more EPIC than you could imagine."
A whole Warrior Nun universe could be in the works
Barry promised more details soon, and English delivered them today in a YouTube video. "I am very happy to announce that 'Warrior Nun' is coming back as a trilogy of motion pictures. Once again, a trilogy of feature films. Three," English announced in the video, clearly thrilled. Fans of the series, which is based on Ben Dunn's comic book series "Warrior Nun Areala," will be too, but they may have to wait a while for the saga's return. English mentions that he can't announce any actors or writers attached to the project due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and we can assume that unless they were already made in secret, production on the projects won't begin until the fight for fair pay in Hollywood is resolved.
Plenty of Netflix shows, from lesbian vampire series "First Kill" to wrestling comedy "GLOW," have earned the fan campaign treatment, but "Warrior Nun" joins just a small handful that have actually been given a chance to come back and complete their stories. In 2018, the Wachowski sisters' high-concept thriller "Sense8" concluded with a feature-length finale, while the streamer's early days were marked by its ability to "rescue" axed cable and primetime shows like "The Killing" and "Arrested Development." In recent years, the streamer has become much more recognizable for the shows whose stories it abruptly cut short, but luckily, "Warrior Nun" will have more than a two-season legacy — thanks to its dedicated fans. The film trilogy has no set release date at this time.