After just one season and ten episodes, the reimagining and remake of Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits has been cancelled by Apple TV+. The series was created by the previously untouchable Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, along with their What We Do in the Shadows collaborator Iain Morris.
The show only finished out its run late last month so the axe has been fairly swift, before any money was spent on a second season.
This version followed an 11-year-old history geek named Kevin (Kal-El Tuck) as he journeys on a series of adventures through the centuries with a ragtag group of thieves led by Penelope (Lisa Kudrow).
As evil forces threaten their conquests, and life as we know it, the group moved throughout history while seeking out treasure. Charlyne Yi, Tadhg Murphy, Rune Temte, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, and Clement co-starred.
The issues were likely twofold. One of the major production powers behind this first season was Paramount Television Studios, which is now closed down. This means new production horsepower would have been needed.
Then, while the show was popular with critics, it didn’t find a mass audience and did not appear in the Nielsen top 10 during its run. This will have combined with the effort required to replace Paramount and made a second season a non-starter.
Clement confirmed in the summer that he and Waititi had already begun scripting a second season of Time Bandits.