2022 has been a year full of cancelations, with shows, movies, and planned projects being canned left, right, and center.
The lion's share of those cancelations have come from Netflix, which has been on an epic round of belt-tightening amid a drop in subscribers, and Warner Bros. Discovery, which after the two giant corporations merged has been looking for any savings it can make and has cut shows, movies and planned projects on an almost daily basis, but Prime Video and Hulu have got in on the act too.
Over the course of 2022, Hulu's executives have said goodbye to quite a few shows, some will feel like it's the right time to end, and others have been cut down in their prime. And we've rounded them all up.
Woke
A strange, but acclaimed comedy, Woke was sadly canceled at the end of June.
A mixture of live-action and animation, Woke ran for two eight-episode runs on Hulu, one in 2020 and a second which debuted in April of this year.
Woke was loosely based on the life of its co-creator, Keith Knight, an American cartoonist and musician known for his accessible yet subversive comic strip The K Chronicles.
It starred Lamorne Morris – best known for his long-running role as Winston Bishop on beloved comedy New Girl – as Keef, a black cartoonist on the verge of mainstream success via his Toast & Butter comic series. Keef takes pride in his comics being light touch and avoiding controversy or political content like the plague.
On the verge of signing a huge new publishing deal, Keef is then the victim of racial profiling by overly aggressive policemen and, unsurprisingly, left traumatized. In the wake of the incident, Keef finds that he's able to see and hear inanimate objects talking to him, plus he's now more sensitive to racism, with everyday microaggressions that he has spent his life trying to avoid acknowledging in every situation, suddenly pronounced.
A clever comedy, it's a shame Woke didn't attract enough viewers to keep going.
The Handmaid's Tale
The show's fifth season is on air now and a sixth one will come after, but that will be the end of this long-running and hugely acclaimed drama.
A big-budget adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s bestselling novel, the show starred Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, and Alexis Bledel.
Set in a dystopian near-future the US is now under the Christian fundamentalist government of Gilead amidst an ongoing civil war, and environmental damage has rendered most women unable to conceive children. This has resulted in the conscription of the few remaining fertile women, known as handmaidens, who are now tasked with populating the world.
With five seasons now in play, the show has gone a lot further than its source material but always remained true to Attwood's spirit. It is grim viewing, but essential and stylish at the same time.
Six seasons may be the right amount to call it a day, but the show will remain a classic for years to come.
Maggie
There were high hopes for Maggie when it was announced, with Hulu's executives hoping they'd found a long-running sitcom to get behind. Sadly, it proved short-lived.
Led by Rebecca Rittenhouse, best known for her roles in The Mindy Project and the TV spin-off of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Maggie followed the titular character, a psychic who is suddenly given a glimpse of her own future when David Del Rio's Ben comes to her for a reading and she sees herself married to him in years to come.
When Ben then moves into the house next door, with his current girlfriend, Maggie is left in something of a bind.
Based on Tim Curcio’s short film, the show was supposed to debut on ABC, but ABC's owners Disney ended up moving the show to Hulu, where sadly it didn't pick up enough of an audience to earn a second run.
Dollface
Dollface, the sparkly comedy led by Kat Dennings, got its marching orders after two seasons back in May.
Dennings played Jules, a web designer, who, after a breakup with her long-term boyfriend leads to the realization that she has neglected all her female friends, metaphorically re-enters the world of women, rekindling the friendships she left behind.
A daydreamer by nature, Jules regularly goes into flights of fancy and the show was interspersed with off-the-wall CGI sequences as Jules drifts away from focusing on her problems.
Never a critical darling, the show did build up a healthy fanbase, but not enough to save it from the chop.
Love, Victor
The spin-off from the film Love, Simon, which had built a good following, ended after the premiere of its third and final season in June.
Love, Victor is set in the same universe as Love, Simon, and follows Michael Cimino's Victor, the new boy at Creekwood High School, as he goes on a journey of self-discovery, at school, at home, and with his sexuality.
Charming, wholesome, and much-liked, it's a shame it was only given 28 episodes to thrive.
Crossing Swords
A bit more of a niche concern, but this stop-motion animated comedy boasted an impressive voice cast and got two seasons before it got the plug pulled.
Led by a voice cast that included Nicholas Hoult, Luke Evans, Tony Hale, and Wendi McLendon-Covey, the show, which is set in an unnamed medieval kingdom, followed Hoult's Patrick, a goodhearted peasant, who is desperate to be a knight.
However, when he gets there, he quickly discovers that the kingdom is run by idiots and his life's dream of valor will be in service of that.
Silly, raucous, and hectic, it wasn't Hulu's only animated casualty of 2022.
M.O.D.O.K
Animated series M.O.D.O.K was once part of a grand plan for Hulu and Marvel. Hulu, which is two-thirds owned by Disney, had announced four animated shows from Marvel Television, M.O.D.O.K, Hit-Monkey, Howard the Duck, and Tigra and Dazzler. After each show had debuted, Hulu's plan was to bring them all together for a team-up, known as The Offenders.
Sadly, Howard the Duck nor Tigra and Dazzler ever made it to air, and Hit-Monkey's fate is still unclear.
M.O.D.O.K stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing and follows the title character, an egomaniacal supervillain who is struggling to keep control of his evil organization and his demanding family commitments.
Patton Oswalt, stand-up comedian, and star of The King of Queens acted as both co-showrunner and the voice of the title character, while Ben Schwartz, the voice of Sonic The Hedgehog, Brooklyn Nine Nine's Melissa Fumero, The Goldbergs' star Wendi McLendon-Covey and Saturday Night Live regular Beck Bennett, were among the supporting voice cast.
M.O.D.O.K's fate, while clearly sealed for a while, was confirmed in May.
Duncanville
The show, which was created by Mike Scully, one-time showrunner on The Simpsons, his wife, and producing partner Julie Thacker Scully and Poehler, launched in February 2020 and ran for three seasons.
Duncanville had a starry voice cast with Poehler, Modern Family star Ty Burrell, Riki Lindhome, Betsy Sodaro, Yassir Lester, Zach Cherry, Parks and Recreation's Rashida Jones, rapper Wiz Khalifa and Joy Osmanski among it.
The show followed Duncan Harris, an average 15-year-old boy who is always one step away from making a good decision, but who enjoys a rich fantasy life with a wild imagination in which he's never anything less than amazing.
Poehler voiced both Duncan himself and his mother, with Burrell portraying his father.
During its three seasons, the show has enjoyed a slew of high-profile guest stars, with Stephen King, Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza, and rockers Dave Grohl and Alice Cooper among them.
