'The Last Tycoon' Cancellation News: Period Drama Axed Amidst Amazon's Programming Shift
"The Last Tycoon," Amazon's period drama series adapted from an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, will not be seeing a second season on Amazon Prime. The cancellation comes just two weeks after the series' debut.
The show did not seem to lack big names, with a list headed by Matt Bomer, Lily Collins, Kelsey Grammer and Rosemarie DeWitt. Bomer plays Monroe Stahr, a maverick studio executive set on a collision course against his mentor and head of studio, Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer).
The series was set among the classic stylings of 1930's Hollywood, as written and directed by Billy Ray, according to Deadline.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Add to that a possible relationship between Stahr and his boss' wife, Rose Brady (Rosemarie DeWitt), and here presented are the makings of a potentially hard-hitting period drama right there as the show debuted on Amazon Prime on July 28.
Amazon Studios still decided to scrap the show just two weeks after launch, as confirmed by Variety. Despite a stellar cast and excellent visuals, a shift of direction for the network seems to have been ordered by no less than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Roy Price, chief of Amazon Studios, said in an interview that they are now looking to make "big shows that can make the biggest difference around the world," something akin to what a massive worldwide hit like "Game of Thrones" has done for HBO.
In the same line of thinking, this could also be the same reason that the streaming service has canceled "Z: The Beginning of Everything," starring Christina Ricci in another period piece based on a Fitzgerald original.
The cancellation of "The Last Tycoon," as previewed in the clip below, seems to be just the latest of the shows swept up in Amazon's housecleaning. Other shows that did not make it to their second season on the streaming giant include "Good Girls Revolt" and "Mad Dogs."
