Netflix Cancels Another Critically-Acclaimed Series After Only One Season

Netflix have been swinging the ax again as it was announced that the critically acclaimed series The Brothers Sun will not be getting a Season 2 renewal. The news came as a blow for fans and the team behind the Michelle Yeoh-starring action-dramedy, which backed up its strong reviews with a five-week run in Netflix’s English-language Top 10.

The news of the series cancellation came as a surprise following the show’s “modest” performance, and plans being discussed for what would happen in its second season. However, Netflix is known to demand a lot from its shows for them to secure a renewal, and it appears that The Brothers Sun is another original show that just couldn’t meet the grade, even with a successful creative team and an Oscar-winning star behind it.

The Brothers Sun centered on the Sun family, a family deeply embroiled in the dangerous world of organized crime. After their father, the head of a powerful Taiwanese triad, is gunned down by a mysterious assassin, Charles “Chairleg” Sun heads to Los Angeles to protect his mother, Eileen, and brother, Bruce, who have both been out of the loop when it comes to knowing anything about the family business. In a time when streaming platforms are looking for diverse content, the show seemed perfectly set to delve into the Taiwanese way of life, family ties and culture.

Starring alongside Yeoh in the series were Justin Chien, Sam Song Li, Joon Lee, and Highdee Kuan, who delivered the kind of authenticity that many such shows lack. The reaction from both fans and critics spoke volumes as to how the story provided an intriguing insight into the Taiwanese culture as well as the criminal underworld the Sun’s were part of.

The Brothers Sun Seemed Certain to Continue at Netflix

Following the impressive reviews and initial performance of The Brothers Sun, many people expected a renewal to be a given for the series. However, those expectations are now nothing more than a “what-if” moment.

Last month, in an interview with MovieWeb, Sam Song Li, who plays Bruce in the show, spoke about a potential season 2 and what he would like to see from the series.

“I think what makes The Brothers Sun work so well is the brotherly dynamics and how these two brothers rub off on each other. The show, at its core, is about two worlds colliding. There’s potential there because they cannot be more different from one another. Naturally, that’s going to stir up conflict. Setting up a showdown of some kind, with a deeper, darker, more serious conflict between the two, could be really fun.”

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This is not the first time Michelle Yeoh has been on the receiving end of a harsh cancellation since her Oscar win at last year’s Academy Awards for Everything Everywhere All at Once. In January, Disney+ announced that American Born Chinese, which also starred fellow Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan, was being cancelled after a single season, despite gaining almost perfect review scores on Rotten Tomatoes and being hailed as one of the best shows in its genre. Now with The Brothers Sun having gone the same way at Netflix, fans of Yeoh will once again be questioning what the actress has to do to avoid making it a hat-trick.