By Alice Seeley
After losing 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of 2022 and having its stock plummet more than 30%, Netflix is proactively combating further financial instability, canceling several in-development projects.
Netflix has noticed a gradual downturn in its financial expansion over the past 12 months. The company’s 9.8% year-on-year growth, according to its Q1 2022 shareholders’ letter, is Netflix’s slowest quarterly growth since Q1 2021.
According to The Wrap, some of the shows that Netflix cut included an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The Twits,” the long-awaited adaptation animated series based on Jeff Smith’s “Bone” comic book series, and Lauren Faust’s “Toil and Trouble.”
The company also canceled Bright 2, the sequel to Will Smith’s action fantasy movie Bright. The sequel was announced in January 2018 and has been in development ever since. It’s unusual for a movie to be canceled this late in the development stage, and it is unclear how many Netflix TV series and films are similarly set for the chopping block.
In addition to canceling multiple new shows and movies, Netflix also dismissed one of its executives, Netflix’s Director of Creative Leadership and Development for Original Animation Phil Rynda.
Netflix is also undergoing a restructuring of its engineering department and a change of direction at Netflix Animation.
“We want to make what our audience wants to see,” said Netflix Co-CEO Reed Hastings.
