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"I Am Not Okay With This" Creator Reveals Show Was Supposed to End With Season 2 Before Cancellation

From Seventeen

Grab a seat, I Am Not Okay With This fans. The show's recent cancellation just got even harsher thanks to this brand new reveal.

While talking to Insider, co-creator and showrunner Jonathan Entwistle revealed that the show's second season would have been its last, before the plug was officially pulled due to coronavirus concerns, even though scripts had already been written.

"Many of the questions that we posed in the first season were mapped out for a second season," he said. "When they commissioned season two and they greenlit us into the writers room, they told us it was to be the final season. So we were writing to a finale that we'd already planned."

He also noted that while the coronavirus was the thing that ultimately shut down the series, Netflix had other concerns.

"There was obviously the impending writers' strike, which was definitely a huge thing at Netflix," Jonathan continued. "We were working almost week to week, not knowing how long it was going to last before somebody pulled the trigger on something that would have an effect [on us]. When the pandemic hit, we moved out of the office and there was definitely a shift within Netflix. We finished the scripts and it was hard work in the Zoom-writer's-room. No writer tells you those things are good. It's not good."

As the pandemic hit, their budget increased in order to keep cast and crew safe, making it hard to continue, despite it being a hit for its size.

"The show was due to start shooting in May/June and obviously it got delayed. We just realized that to COVID-proof the show was going to cost a lot more money," he said. "It's more complex than that with Netflix. We had amazing viewing figures for a show of that size. If you put that [show] on Hulu, it would be mind blowing, but on Netflix it wasn't that impressive."

"I think that one of the problems we faced with I Am Not Okay With This is that in many ways I considered it to be a smaller, niche show and they considered it to be a replacement for Stranger Things. I do think when they were looking at all the finances, the show was more expensive than they figured it was worth doing."

Jonathan was hoping to re-edit the final shot to give the show more of a concrete ending, but Netflix didn't let him, leaving a big cliffhanger.

"I think it's always disappointing to see such a whipped up fan base for a show that then gets very quickly canceled and nothing ever gets posted on the Instagram page ever again. The show still exists on Netflix, but it just slowly buries itself on Netflix instead of it keeping a life," he said. The [fans] all came, but I feel sad because they've been abandoned. I feel like when the shows get canceled, they are expected just to move on to the next thing."

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