‘The incident’ did not prompt Netflix to cancel Will Smith’s movie

Advertisements

It’s rumoured that Netflix has cancelled Bright 2

(Image credit: John Phillips/John Phillips/Getty Images)

Another day, another Netflix snub. We’re not sure whether it’s a bad thing that Will Smith’s Bright 2 is the latest in a long line of sequels to be delayed.

Another Smith project has been postponed after the now-famous Oscars slap, according to Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw, who followed up his tweet with the news that Bright will no longer have a sequel. However, this seems to be “unrelated” to the occurrence.

Advertisements

If Shaw is correct, it joins an ever-growing list of shows that have been cancelled by the ailing streaming service.

In addition to Archive 81, The Baby-Sitters Club, Gentefied, and On The Verge, Netflix has cancelled many more programmes this year including Archive 81, The Baby-Club Sitter’s and Gentefied, among others.

In the same breath, if Bright 2 is truly shelved, it would not come as a huge surprise.

In the first place, the original film was a complete and utter trainwreck. Rotten Tomatoes gives the 2017 picture a dismal 27% approval rating, and as someone who had to sit through it, I’d say that’s a little charitable.

Bright, starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, is an urban fantasy in which humans and orcs and elves cohabit in a tense relationship. Edgerton portrays the orc partner of Smith’s LAPD policeman.

Advertisements

It’s a clever idea, and it enabled the plot to examine issues of racism and police corruption, but the execution lacked polish and the result was disappointing. “Bright is just a stale buddy-cop movie wrapped up in weird trappings,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Hastings revealed a month after the show debuted that it had “become one of our most-viewed original titles ever.” We’re contemplating a sequel and increased investment in original films,” Hastings said.

Smith and Edgerton were confirmed to be on board for Bright 2 as recently as last summer, as reported by Variety.

Advertisements

Nevertheless, it was costly — $90 million, according to one estimate — and Netflix has recently revealed its first subscriber decline in a decade. Over the following several months, that decline is expected to climb by 2 million people throughout the globe, due to a tightening of budgets.

It’s said that Netflix aims to boost money by limiting account sharing and creating an advertising-funded tier, and it may possibly experiment with the nuclear option of stopping binge-watching entirely. Due to current market conditions, Bright 2 may be out of reach financially for Netflix.

The alleged cancellation may not have been directly caused by Smith’s Oscars episode, but it couldn’t have helped either. Even so, we won’t lament the passing of Bright 2; instead, we’ll cheer ourselves up with the latest releases from HBO Max, Netflix, and other services.

Advertisements

Leave a Comment