It's the end of the line for The Get Down.
The ambitious music drama from writer-director Baz Luhrmann has been canceled after one season.
The news comes nearly two months after the second half of the series' first season premiered on Netflix. The Get Down was described as "a mythic saga of how New York at the brink of bankruptcy gave birth to hip-hop, punk and disco" and was set in the Bronx in the late '70s.
Originally announced in February 2015, the series marked Luhrmann's first foray into television and stemmed from a concept he had been working on for more than a decade.
However, the Sony-produced series soon hit delays and also saw the departure of original showrunner Shawn Ryan. The first six episodes of season one debuted in August 2016 -- marking the first time a Netflix original season was split into two parts rather than released all at once as has been tradition at the streaming giant for scripted series.
The five remaining episodes were subsequently released in April 2017, bringing the season one total to 11 -- two short of the original 13-episode order The Get Down received in 2015.
"The truth is that at a certain point, there was no precedent for how you make such a music-driven show," Luhrmann told THR when discussing Ryan's exit. "Ultimately, right now, I ultimately was asked to take the position of being responsible for everything and yes, I am responsible for everything, including saying we have to stop and get it right. … We would start doing it [shooting] and I was being asked to get more involved because it was either not working or it had to be re-engineered."
In addition to multiple production delays, the series financial issues, with the overall budget reported to be approximately $120 million -- making it the most expensive series on television, a fact which Luhrmann refuted.
"I heard The Crown was the most expensive show ever made, that's what someone told me," Luhrmann also said in July 2016. "Yes, it took longer and it's been more difficult than I imagined. As for the number, it wasn't cheap. But I don't think it's the most expensive show. I think it's on the high end of storytelling."
Although Luhrmann had taken a larger role on the series in the wake of Ryan's exit, he had recently revealed plans to take a step back from the series should it have been renewed for season two.
Luhrmann posted a lengthy note about the show's demise on his Facebook page Wednesday night. Read it here:
This article was first published by The Hollywood Reporter