Peacock Has Canceled Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol After Its First Season
Young Robert Langdon, the enterprising symbologist who would grow up to become the character played by Tom Hanks in a series of three films, has had his life cut short at Peacock. The streaming arm of NBCUniversal has elected not to renew "The Lost Symbol" for a second season.
Based on the bestselling Dan Brown novel of the same name, "The Lost Symbol" was originally meant to be a movie sequel to "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons." It would have continued Langdon's adventures on the big screen, but the studio behind the movies, Sony, opted to go for "Inferno" as the third one instead.
In a statement to Deadline, Peacock positioned its 10-episode TV adaptation of "The Lost Symbol" as something of a miniseries that had run its course, saying: "We were so proud to bring this action-packed mystery thriller to our members and enjoyed watching this compelling series unfold with a satisfying, complete story,"
I feel like just yesterday I was writing up posts about the release date for "The Lost Symbol" and its official trailer. Upon closer inspection, that was five months ago, a lifetime in Hollywood years, which I take to be the reverse of dog years.
The first season of "The Lost Symbol," which starred Ashley Zuckerman ("Fear Street") as the young Langdon and Eddie Izzard as his mentor, came in September 2021 and went in November 2021. And I must confess that I did not watch a minute of it. Did you? All I saw of it was the trailers because, although I enjoy the verb "peacocking" as a word (and "so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence," as a one-eyed Daryl Hannah would say), Peacock is currently available only in the U.S., the U.K.. and Ireland, and I do not live there. Sorry, Peacock.
Robert Langdon Refuses to Die
Alright, let's quit peacocking around and discuss the liquid tank in "The Lost Symbol," as it relates to the cancelation of this streaming series. Back in the day, I did read Brown's novel after a family member gifted me the hardback one Christmas. This would have been back in 2009, I think, since that's the year the book came out.
There is something that happens in the pages of "The Lost Symbol" that I would like to discuss, so if you haven't read Brown's book or watched the Peacock series, look away now. This will involve the airing (oxygen pun intended) of some spoilers for "The Lost Symbol."
There's a moment in the novel where Mal'akh, the tattooed Mason and black magician (because: Dan Brown), seals Robert Langdon inside a sensory deprivation tank, which he then fills with water — seemingly drowning Langdon and killing off Brown's literary cash cow. Up to that point, I was not enjoying "The Lost Symbol," but when I read that part, I thought it was a ballsy move. "Good for you, Dan," I thought. "Spread your wings and fly beyond Robert Langdon."
Then, of course, the book reveals that it wasn't really water in that sensory deprivation tank. It was some cockamamie breathable liquid. That stimulated the Bond villain part of my brain and had me thinking, "Why won't you die, Langdon? Just die!"
All these years later, Robert Langdon is finally dead — or at least, his Peacock series is. I can only speculate how long it will be before they reboot the franchise and bring Langdon back onscreen like Brown brought him back in his novel. You have to admit: he's a tenacious bugger, and they never did film the fifth book, "Origin."