According to The Hollywood Reporter, Showtime has decided not to give The Man Who Fell to Earth a second season. The show’s creators, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet had planned for it to be a limited series initially, but they decided to alter their minds midway through filming the pilot. Studios believed the season ended well and were satisfied with the creative choices made, according to the article.
The article goes on to point out that the decision was made before Paramount, Showtime’s parent company, replaced David Nevins with former Viacom CEO Chris McCarthy. The drama was deemed more suitable for the Showtime lineup of Premium programming in March 2021, hence it was relocated from CBS All Access (now Paramount+) in March 2021. In Walter Tevis’ 1963 novel of the same name, an extraterrestrial comes to Earth in search of a lady who can help preserve his species.
This limited series is based on that story. But then they learn that they have to preserve Earth before they can save his world, and everything changes. In 1976, a cinematic version of the novel was released, with David Bowie and Candy Clark in the lead roles. “Our appreciation to the exceptional Kurtzman, Lumet, John Hlavin, and Sarah Timberman who did a tremendous job converting the David Bowie picture into such a poignant narrative for our times,” a Showtime spokeswoman said in a statement about the project. Series regulars were Chiwetel Ejiofor (the alien/Faraday), Naomie Harris (Justin), Annelle Olaleye (Molly), Clarke Peters (Josiah Falls), Bill Nighy (Thomas Jerome Newton), Jimmi Simpson (Spencer Clay), and Kate Mulgrew (Drew Finch).
Claiming that “Alex and Jenny originally intended The Man Who Fell To Earth to be a close-ended story,” the official statement went on to praise the efforts of the cast and crew. We debated making it into a two-season show, but in the end, we opted to just enjoy it as a complete narrative in its own right. Hlavin, Kurtzman, and Lumet were all co-showrunners. Along with Timberman, Carl Beverly, Heather Kadin, and Rola Bauer of Studiocanal’s Françoise Guyonnet, the duo served as executive producers. Kurtzman and Lumet, however, remain under overall deals with CBS Studios, where they are developing a number of projects, including new entries in the Star Trek series.