Minx Show: Season Two’s Ill-fated run and Hopes for a Future Season
The TV show “Minx” seems to be playing a disappointing game of musical chairs as it was originally scrapped by Max, then saved by Starz only to be cancelled post its second season. Series star, Jake Johnson, pins the lackluster performance on a dearth of promotion due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and the show’s switch to HBO Max. However, the curtain may not close on Minx just yet, with three streaming platforms showing interest in giving the series a new lease of life.
‘Minx’ gets the Axe…Again
While its cancellation might not have come as a shock to some, the move by Starz to pull the plug on Minx certainly sends ripples. The show was initially axed by Max ahead of its second season, which was all set to succumb to Warner Bros. Discovery’s gruff tax write-offs. Starz swooped in to salvage the series, as the second season was beamed in the summer, with the season finale airing on September 8, 2023. However, the channel will not be commissioning a third season.
Series’ leading man, Jake Johnson had an inkling about the show’s fate, given his recent hairstyle change, with him donning shorter hair than his character in the series. The actor, in a conversation with Deadline, suggested that the show’s premiere coinciding with the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike was a major blow to the second season.
“I think the move to Starz, I think HBO kind of doing their HBO thing, or HBO Max, whatever it’s called now, I think that was brutal for [the show]. Then, I think the strike coming out right as we were trying to promote it…My guess is you can’t beat something up that many times and keep going.”
When Minx premiered on HBO Max in March 2022, it garnered favourable reviews. A month after its launch, the series was granted another season. But it was blindsided in December, when the show was abruptly cancelled in a budget-slashing move triggered by the WarnerMedia and Discovery merge. The news came as a shock, especially given the positive reception that the first season had seen. Johnson, who stars in and co-executive produces the series, spoke up about learning of the show’s cancellation in a recent chat with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I found out with everybody else when the news broke. It was more of an existential hit, for me. It wasn’t creative or personal. It was just a huge corporation doing a snaky numbers move. The more these people keep pushing, the less it’s about art and creativity and the more it’s about data. F—ing gross.”
Jake Johnson on the Hope for a Minx Revival
Despite the setback, Johnson hinted at light at the end of the tunnel:
“Our cast is so sweet, so new generation. On New Girl, which will always be my base, that was my generation and we were rattier. No one acted vulnerable. If we’d been canceled, we all would’ve been sailors about it. ‘OK, well, then, f— Fox!’ With this group, there was just a sadness in the air. I’ve become a veteran, so I contacted a friend at Lionsgate and he explained that we weren’t dead. This show was lucrative for the studio domestically and internationally. There were already three streamers showing interest. The question wasn’t if we’d find a home. It was, ‘Who wants us the most and why?'”
He added that while he couldn’t make public statements about the likelihood of Minx continuing at a new home, he could reassure the castmembers. Lionsgate Television, the production studio behind Minx, wasted no time in putting the show up for sale. Less than a month later, it was snapped up by Starz, an affiliate of Lions Gate Entertainment.
Jake Johnson Had High Hopes for Minx’s Season Three
The show, which builds around the concept of Minx—the first erotic magazine intended for women, offers Ophelia Lovibond as Joyce, an idealistic young woman with dreams of launching a feminist publication, and Johnson as Doug, an adult magazine publisher who somehow manages to convince Joyce to partner with him. As the first season unfolds, Doug, Joyce, and the rest of the Minx team work their charm to create a buzz for the groundbreaking magazine featuring nude men and feminist articles. They find success, but it brings along with it struggles and significant disparities between the main characters of the series.
Earlier, Johnson had expressed a desire to see a third season of Minx, commenting to THR:
“I want Minx to get a third season. I really want to see [my character] Doug in the ’80s, to see what happens when he does cocaine for the first time.”
The second season of Minx starred Johnson, Lovibond, Johnson, Idara Victor, Jessica Lowe, Lennon Parham, Michael Angarano, Oscar Montoya and Elizabeth Perkins. The show was the brainchild of Ellen Rapoport, the showrunner and executive producer alongside Paul Feig and Dan Magnante for Feigco Entertainment, and Ben Karlin and Rachel Lee Goldenberg.
The first two seasons of Minx will continue to be available on the Starz app and major platforms.
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