(Photo by: Apple TV+)
It’s one and done for Charlie Hunnam’s latest series. Apple TV+ has cancelled the Shantaram TV series after one season of 12 episodes. The de facto series finale was released today.
Based on the bestselling novel by Gregory David Roberts, the Shantaram TV series stars Hunnam, Shubham Saraf, Elektra Kilbey, Fayssal Bazzi, Luke Pasqualino, Antonia Desplat, Alyy Khan, Sujaya Dasgupta, Vincent Perez, David Field, Alexander Siddig, Gabrielle Scharnitzky, Elham Ehsas, Rachel Kamath, Matthew Joseph, and Shiv Palekar. The story follows an Australian fugitive named Lin Ford (Hunnam) who is looking to get lost in the vibrancy and chaos of Bombay in the 1980s. Alone in an unfamiliar city, Lin struggles to avoid the trouble he’s running from in this new place. After falling for an enigmatic and intriguing woman named Karla, Lin must choose between freedom or love and the complications that come with it.
The show’s expansive production proved challenging during the pandemic as filming was to take place across two continents. After two episodes were filmed, production had to be shut down in February 2020. Production didn’t resume until May 2021. Shantaram launched on October 14th with a trio of episodes and the remaining nine installments have been doled out one a week since then.
Hunnam has said that Shantaram was a sometimes grueling series to make, but that deep connection didn’t give him any insights into the show’s chances for survival. Here’s an excerpt from an EW interview that was given before the news of the cancellation was announced. The actor expresses frustration with how the fate of streaming series are decided.
What kinds of conversations have there been so far about a potential season 2 renewal?
I don’t know what conversations are going on about a second season. I don’t even know if there even are any conversations going on at this point about a second season. It’s a weird thing — streaming platforms work in a completely different way than traditional television networks, which is [by a] really very clear arithmetic: If a show is getting big numbers and can justify generating large ad revenue, then it’s pretty much a given that it’ll come back. I don’t quite know what the arithmetic within streaming platforms are to justify whether a show comes back. Nobody ever really knows what [the viewership] is because most of the streaming platforms are very reticent to publish exactly what the viewership is of shows.
So listen, your guess is as good as mine. My hope would be that they feel as though the show is good enough to justify another season. But honestly, I’ve got no f—ing idea. I am not privy to those conversations in any way, shape, or form.
Check out our list of more than 60 series that have also been cancelled this season.
What do you think? Have you kept up with the Shantaram series on Apple TV+? Are you disappointed that there won’t be a second season?