“Heels” showrunner says they're 'actively' seeking a new home for the wrestling drama
After Starz announced on Monday that it was pulling the plug on Heels — the wrestling-and-family drama starring Stephen Amell — angry fans made "#CancelStarz" trend on social media.
The news was particularly painful for Heels' small but devoted following of viewers, coming as it did just 10 days after the intense season 2 finale. "High Flying" followed Amell's Jack Spade and his Duffy Wrestling League promotion as they put on a "Harmageddon" show in the hopes of landing a major deal with a streaming platform called Continuum. In the main event, Jack faced off in a match against the Condamned, a character played by his brother, Ace (Alexander Ludwig). He executed a dangerous flying leap into the ring — and ended up catastrophically injured, with no feeling in his legs.
But Jack and the DWL may not be down for the count just yet. Now that the Hollywood writers' strike has ended, showrunner Mike O'Malley says he and his team are "actively" shopping the show around to other networks. "I really do think it's going to have a life someplace else," says O'Malley, who also appears on the show as Charlie Gully, the flamboyant promoter of the rival Florida Wrestling Dystopia league. "We did not intend, nor do we intend, for [the season 2 finale] to be the last episode of the show."
Starz Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig on 'Heels'
EW spoke with O'Malley about his reaction to the cancellation, why he believes the show will continue, and where he sees things going for the Spade brothers in season 3.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you find out that Starz was canceling the show?
MIKE O'MALLEY: They called me on Friday. I was on the picket line and I got a text from [Starz president] Kathryn Busby. I just got there, and she said, "Do you have time to talk?" Those aren't necessarily the most positive texts. [Laughs] And so, I just called her up and I just said, "All right, what's up? You canceling Heels?"
I've known her a long time. I've developed with her in the past. I've done two shows at Starz now, and I love those people. They really, really care deeply about making quality, bespoke programming. I've done four seasons of Survivor's Remorse and two seasons of Heels, and I've loved them.
They put Heels in development to peel the curtain back on a world that people don't really know. In this contracting environment, they had to look at [the show] and say, "Is it bringing in new subscribers? Did all the people who love wrestling, did it steer them towards our service? And if not, do the people who already have the service feel like this show is for them?" All I know is that they took a big swing, and we had all the resources to make this show, and we made a fricking amazing show. It's amazing, the reception from people who watch it, it's tremendous.
Starz Mike O'Malley and Kelli Berglund on 'Heels'
So when you asked her, "Are you canceling Heels?" you weren't joking — you knew it was bad news?
I knew. It was really, really challenging in the sense that we weren't able to promote this show and talk about this show [due to the writers' and actors' strikes]. We knew when we finished the season, all the cast and everyone involved with the show, we're going to have to work our tail off to get people to watch the show, because Starz doesn't have the same marketing and advertising muscle behind it.
When the strike happened and they said we couldn't talk about it, it wasn't like Heels was on buses in every city in America. We're on Friday nights in the summertime. Starz worked really hard on making a great show and funding a great show, and we did too. We knew that we were going to have to carry some of the marketing [work]. We were supposed to go to Comic-Con and we didn't. And so when she called me — if it's good news, 10 people hop on the call. The breakup phone call is one quick call, and both people can't wait to get off the phone.
The season ended on a major cliffhanger, which we'll discuss in a minute. Are you hoping to find a new home for the show so you can continue telling the story of the Spade brothers and the Duffy Wrestling League?
Yeah, we are actively doing it right now. And some of the actors are still under contract. Obviously, the [writers'] strike just ended. I couldn't have any conversations about this [until now], and granted, they just told me on Friday. But not only are we trying to [find a new network], I really believe the Starz executives when they say they want to see a future for the show too, because they did invest a lot in the show… I really do think it's going to have a life someplace else.
Okay, so let's proceed as if the show will come back for a third season and talk about that finale for a minute. The season ends with Jack suffering a catastrophic injury of some kind in the ring that leaves him with no feeling in his legs. Was this always how you were planning to end season 2?
We did not intend, nor do we intend, for this to be the last episode of the show. One of the things that we're trying to do in this show is honor wrestlers, honor anybody who has a dream and the endurance to pursue that dream. Sometimes that endurance can be misguided.
For instance, I used to like tap dancing. I was terrible at it, but when I was in college, to get out of the University of New Hampshire with a theater degree, I had to take tap dance. You have never seen a tap dancer worse than me. And can you imagine if I spent my whole life like, "Hey, man, I have dream! I'm going to bring tap dancing back!" So, one of the things we were trying to talk about in the show, if you want to be a professional wrestler — but you also want to have a family and you want to have financial stability and you want to have a body that still works — these are all sacrifices that you make. And Jack Spade, the sacrifice that happened in this family is that his father [played by David James Elliott] wanted it so badly and was so disappointed, he killed himself.
What the show is really about is, how does our humanity get in the way of our own happiness? What happens at the end of that episode is Jack, who has been treated a certain way by his father, sees Ace being praised by the Continuum executive, Jen Lussier [played by Emmy Raver-Lampman]. She's rooting for Ace, and here's Jack, still that boy who wanted to be loved by his dad. He lets his own ego [take over]. He executes the leap. That moment is just him pushing it one step too far because his brother is being celebrated instead of him. And that's the tragedy of it.
Starz David James Elliott and Stephen Amell on 'Heels'
By the way, I love that when Ace came back to wrestle, he named his new character "the Condamned."
Let me tell you something that was really funny. It was "the Condemned," but we couldn't get the Condemned approved because somebody's already called the Condemned. So we literally had to call it the Condamned. It's so ridiculous, but we thought it was so Ace.
Looking ahead to a potential season 3, what can you tease about how you want Jack's story and his injury to play out?
Listen, he's going to have to deal with the aftermath of that injury. Put it this way: He's not getting up and saying, "Oh, I just got a booboo." Or, "I really wanted Ace to win, and that was the way I got over on Charlie Gully." He is at that moment significantly injured. And the extent of what that injury is, we don't know. We're not about to go Friday Night Lights with this thing, because Stephen Amell is the star of our show, and the story is going to be about how there's something for him to work through.
In terms of where the show will go in the future, whether it goes on or not, I'm trying to write a show about people getting along and finding a way to connect. As Ace says in the last episode, he spends so much time going after things and trying to get [success], but he could have spent a little bit more time trying to cultivate kindness. I believe that there is an audience out there who wants to see characters genuinely struggle through their own humanity, and characters who are trying to connect, because it's what people are trying to do in their own lives. And you just don't see enough of it on television.
Finally, shortly after Heels season 2 premiered, Stephen Amell made some comments about the SAG-AFTRA strike that received a lot of blowback. At the time, what was your reaction to his comments about his frustrations with the strike?
Well, I called Stephen and I spoke to him about it. What he was trying to talk about is that he loved the show, and he had an incredible pride in the show. We knew that [his comments] were going to distract from the hard work that the people in both the WGA, of which I'm a member, and SAG-AFTRA, were doing. And I knew that immediately because I had been on the picket line. When I heard and I called him up, I said, "Stephen, man, we all got to stand together." He got it immediately.
I just think it was an unfortunate moment; I genuinely think that he put his foot in his mouth. He felt bad about it. My initial reaction was just like, "Ah man, I know how this is going to play, and I've got to talk to him about it because I don't think he meant it to come across the way that it did." I think he was basically saying was what a lot of people were saying, which was that they were frustrated that they couldn't work. But I know where his heart is, and his heart is standing with his union, as he said.
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