“Avenue 5” canceled after 2 seasons on HBO

“Avenue 5” crashed. Armando Iannucci’s sci-fi comedy series at HBO has been canceled after two seasons, IndieWire has confirmed.

The news comes nearly three months after the second season wrapped in November. The Hugh Laurie-led series originally premiered in January 2020.

“Going into space with Armando Iannucci has been an incredible journey,” an HBO spokesperson told IndieWire in a statement. “While we are not moving forward with a third season of Avenue 5, we look forward to many more adventures together.”

In “Avenue 5,” Laurie and Josh Gad captained and owned the eponymous interplanetary cruise ship. Set in 2060, the show also starred Zach Woods, Rebecca Front, Suzy Nakamura, Lenora Crichlow, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Ethan Phillips as employees and passengers aboard the Avenue 5. The ship goes off course after a mishap, forcing the group to work together to survive a three-year journey to Earth.

The show received a second season order in February 2020, in the middle of the first season. Due to the pandemic, production was delayed until August 2021, and the second season of the series finally premiered in October 2022, almost three years after the first premiere.

The series was Iannucci’s second for HBO, following Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ acclaimed political satire “Veep,” which ran on the network from 2012 to 2019 and won three Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series. The creator of “Thick of It” and “In the Loop” remains at HBO with Sam Mendes’ collaboration “The Franchise.” The Billy Magnussen-starring series will focus on the making of a new superhero movie and has been picked up on the premium cable channel.

Laurie also already has a new project; The “House” star has joined the cast of Apple TV+’s Israeli series “Tehran” for its third season, which is currently filming.

“Avenue 5” received mixed reviews upon its original premiere, with IndieWire critic Ben Travers writing that the series got off to “a rocky start.” Season 2 was better received, with Travers writing that the series “really took off” in the second season.

Iannucci executive produced “Avenue 5” with Kevin Loader, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche and Will Smith, with Peter Fellows and Becky Martin as co-executive producers and Steve Clark-Hall as executive producer. The series was co-produced by HBO and Sky UK.

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