Why The Purge Was Canceled Before Season 3
Emma Horne The Purge TV series, from Blumhouse Productions and USA Network, was recently announced to be canceled before season 3; here's why this happened.
Recent news of The Purge television series being canceled before season 3 has released; while the show had a reasonably sized fan base, there are several reasons behind this decision.
The Purge first aired on USA in September 2018 and season 2 finished airing in 2019. While short-lived, the television series, from Blumhouse Productions, explored more of the universe created by James DeMonaco with The Purge movies, which began in 2013. The first movie, which starred Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) and Ethan Hawke (Sinister), ended up turning one of Blumhouse's traditional micro-budgets of only $3 million into $89.3 million at the box office. This not only proved that horror movies can be tremendously profitable for studios, but ended up sparking a major franchise that paved the way for other socially-driven and politically-driven horror, such as Get Out and Us, which are both also connected to Blumhouse, to follow.
To date, there are four movies in The Purge franchise. The television series was less successful, but fans of the franchise will still be getting another addition to DeMonaco's dystopian world through The Purge 5, which has been titled The Forever Purge; it has been said to be the last installment in the franchise. What this could mean is that, depending on whether there's still interest in The Purge franchise after the release of The Purge 5, perhaps Blumhouse Productions will look for other options to continue the televisions series somehow.
Why The Purge Was Canceled After Season 2
The primary reason for canceling The Purge season 3 was due to a shift for USA. According to the network, they intend to focus more on unscripted programming and other live shows rather than original, scripted series. This could be because these, by and large, haven't done as well for them in the past. While The Purge does have a dedicated fanbase for the movies, it's possible that this audience didn't translate to a television show, and the ratings and viewership for season 2 proved this upon a rather significant decline. The Purge was not the only scripted series canceled by USA, which solidifies the decision being more of a transition for the network rather than a result of its specific problems, though season 2 was not as highly regarded as season 1.
What The Purge Season 3's Story Could've Been About
The Purge season 2 ended with a resistance faction being formed after the assassination of Esme Carmona (Paola Núñez), who once worked for the NFFA in their surveillance department. Esme went rogue in season 2 and sought to discover the depths of corruption within the NFFA and their off-Purge kills. For many reasons, this resistance could lead into Election Year and Charlie Roan's (Elizabeth Mitchell) platform to abolish Purge Night and overthrow the NFFA. After the events of Election Year and Roan's victory, there's undoubtedly going to be conflicts between those who still support the NFFA and want to keep The Purge active and a yearly, American tradition and those who believe the violence must come to an end. The Purge television series could have explored this dissent between sides in season 3, as it finished on another bloody Purge Night; the majority of season 2 showed what life was like for Americans the rest of the year.
The title of The Purge 5 being The Forever Purge could point to this as well, but the television series set up an interesting potential for exploring more of the NFFA's influence on countries outside of the United States. The ending of The Purge season 1 made mention to European countries considering a vote about whether to adopt a similar policy to The Purge for their own governments. The Purge season 3 certainly did have potential, but will have to continue through the movie franchise unless Blumhouse makes a move to continue on a streaming platform, such as Hulu, where they already have a relationship through their Into the Dark anthology.
