Why Netflix Canceled Arnold Schwarzenegger's Fubar

"FUBAR" was, in the estimation of /Film's Chris Evangelista, a watered-down "True Lies." But this being Arnold Schwarzenegger's first leading role in a scripted show, and his big streaming debut, it seemed as if the project might have some legs. What's more, when the first season debuted on May 25, 2023, it had been three decades since James Cameron's $100 million action comedy bowed in theaters. Perhaps a new generation was ready to embrace a more sanitized streaming version of a movie they'd never seen? Now that I write that, though, I'm starting to get an idea of why "FUBAR" didn't last past its second season.

The action comedy series came courtesy of creator Nick Santora, who has recently made a name for himself overseeing another action streaming series in the form of Prime Video's "Reacher," which is busy breaking records and topping the Nielsen charts. "FUBAR," however, hasn't enjoyed the same success as Prime Video's Alan Ritchson-led series (though Schwarzenegger and Ritchson are due to co-star in an upcoming Christmas comedy with an outlandish premise). Arnie's show didn't quite resonate with viewers in the same way as "Reacher," but it did at least get a second season renewal just one month after the inaugural season hit Netflix. This would be the last time the show was given a green light, however. Season 2 debuted in June 2025 and two months later Netflix pulled the plug. So, what went wrong?

"FUBAR" starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Luke Brunner a CIA operative on the verge of retirement and family man who is stunned to discover that his daughter, Emma (Monica Barbaro, who played Joan Baez in "A Complete Unknown" and earned an Oscar nomination for her work), is also working for the same agency. After both learn the truth about each other's secret lives, they also realize they don't really know all that much about each other. But when they're assigned to work together on a dangerous mission, there's plenty of father-daughter bonding to be had alongside the plentiful ass kickery.

Season 2 saw the father-daughter team face off against Carrie-Anne Moss's Greta Nelso, a German spy who was also Luke's ex. Alas, the inclusion of the great Moss, who has some strong action bonafides of her own, wasn't enough to secure the series another renewal. On August 1, 2025, Deadline reported that Netflix had opted not to renew "FUBAR" for a third season, following what the outlet described as a "surprisingly soft return for the series" with its second season.

The fact that fans had to wait more than two years between season 1 and 2 surely didn't help "FUBAR." Season 2 reportedly barely made it into the Top 10 for English-language series in its first few days on the platform, coming in last on the rankings for the period from Thursday through Sunday, and racking up 2.2 million views. Compare that to the roughly 11 million views garnered by the season 1 premiere weekend and you can see just how severe the drop-off was. As Deadline points out, season 2 peaked at number seven on the charts in its first full week, with an average of 3.3 million views, before dropping to number 10 in its third week with 1.8 million views. After that lackluster performance, Netflix seemingly decided against giving the show another chance, and mercilessly canned the whole thing just a few weeks after it also canceled "The Residence" in similarly ruthless fashion.

While "FUBAR" clearly saw a marked decline in viewership, there was still that two-year gap between seasons to account for, and had Netflix produced another season more quickly the show might have had a chance to rebuild its audience. As Deadline noted in its report, the cancellation of "FUBAR" was quite a rare occurrence for 2025 considering Netflix had renewed almost 20 other scripted shows since the start of the year.

That said, it's not as if "FUBAR" had anything else going for it that might have saved it. The show has an average rating of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that likely didn't play into the streamer's decision to cancel the series at all. After all, this is the company that gave us the unreasonably expensive dud that was the Russo brothers' worst movie, "The Electric State" as well as Kevin Hart's "Lift," which inexplicably topped the movie charts the same year "FUBAR" debuted. Still, a 50% RT score for season 1 and a 48% score for season 2 was unlikely to convince any of the Netflix execs to reconsider canning "FUBAR" in the face of dwindling viewership.

At the time of writing, there's been no reactions from the cast or crew. But showrunner Nick Santora is hard at work on "Reacher" season 4 and the upcoming spin-off "Neagley," while Arnie is probably at the gym.