Why Prime Video Canceled Orlando Bloom's Carnival Row

Almost everyone loves a good fantasy world to escape into, and the Prime Video series "Carnival Row" was a spectacularly crafted fantasy world featuring mythical beings who must try to live alongside mundane humans in a world that oppresses them. The worldbuilding was phenomenal with a number of interesting characters and ideas, though sometimes the rather basic plot at the center let the rest of the series down. It could be hit or miss, with critics warmer on the first season than the second, though the series also had its ardent defenders. After all, this was a series with Orlando Bloom playing Philo, a smoldering half-fae detective, and Cara Delevingne playing Vignette, a freaking faerie resistance fighter and Philo's ex, so there was almost a guaranteed fanbase based on pure supernatural hottie factor alone. So why did it get the axe after only two seasons? 

The show had some pretty major shake-ups behind the scenes, with the series creator and showrunner both leaving after the first season and a new showrunner stepping in, so there are myriad reasons why "Carnival Row" might have been cancelled. According to Orlando Bloom, however, the biggest nail in the "Carnival Row" season 3 coffin was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In an interview with Radio Times, Bloom explained why he felt "Carnival Row" ended after its second season: 

"I think COVID really put the brakes on everything. It was jarring and so the thinking was, there was a lot of love for the show in season 1 — and certainly Amazon was super supportive — but really, we had so much footage that we were able to take this world and bring it to a conclusion in a really great way. And I love the idea of leaving people wanting more, rather than trying to wring the marrow out of everything."

Since season 2 was just finishing filming as lockdowns went into place, the series was in a real state of limbo. When they realized that they wouldn't be continuing with a season 3 they were able to create a satisfying-enough ending for fans, though there was definitely a feeling of "Carnival Row" being cut short. Fans found a lot to love in the series, which took a hard look at prejudices and used its faerie allegories to deal with issues in our own world, but it was probably just too expensive, and there was too long of a wait between the first and second seasons for Amazon to justify more. 

Life eerily mirrored art a bit when it came to the second season of "Carnival Row," as one of the main story arcs revolves around an illness wiping out faerie populations. In an interview with ScreenRant, Bloom said:

"What was sort of unique was that we were shut down for COVID just as we were filming and finishing filming a storyline that involved a virus going through the Carnival Row, taking out fae. So it was like, 'Wow, is this really happening?' And I think that was life mirroring art and it was so true for the whole show and I love that about it."

The second season of the fantasy series used its fantastical, semi-historical setting to remind us of the horrors in our own history, so it was pretty ironic that an actual pandemic occured right when the series was dealing with a fictional one, most likely inspired by either the 1918 flu pandemic or society's earlier bouts with diseases like bubonic plague. Sometimes life mirrors art and art predicts life, even when said art seems like it's just a romance show about faeries.