David Farnor | On 02, Apr 2022

Netflix has cancelled horror series Archive 81 after just one season.

An original story loosely inspired by the popular podcast of the same name, the supernatural thriller series executive produced by showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys, The Vampire Diaries), James Wan and Michael Clear of Atomic Monster (The Conjuring Universe film franchise and Malignant), Rebecca Thomas (Stranger Things, Limetown), Antoine Douaihy (Panic, The Good Cop) and Paul Harris Boardman (Deliver Us from Evil).

It follows archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie), who takes a job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994. Reconstructing the work of a documentary filmmaker named Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), he is drawn into her investigation of a dangerous cult at the Visser apartment building. As the season unfolds across these two timelines, Dan slowly finds himself obsessed with uncovering what happened to Melody. When the two characters form a mysterious connection, Dan becomes convinced he can save her from the terrifying end she met 25 years ago.

The show debuted on Netflix at the start of the year, but now, Netflix has confirmed that it will not return for a second chapter. The news was broken by Deadline, with the likely reasons for its cancellation stemming from the reach of the show – or its completion rate among those who did watch it – in relation to its budget. Nonetheless, the move comes as a surprise given the horror pedigree of the creative team behind it.

Sonnenshine later posting on Twitter: “Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who watched Archive 81. Thank you to the reviewers who were so kind and thoughtful. We’re surprised and disappointed that we won’t be doing another season (we had cool new stories/found footage/Kaelego-lore planned). I hope you’ll remember us well!”

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