It’s been a year since the last season of CBC series Anne with an E released on Netflix. Before the release, it was decided that the third season would be the last. The Canadian audiences and the rest of the world loved the show so much that they began to campaign in favour of the series, wanting it to continue.
About the Series
Anne with an E is a Canadian TV series created by Moira Walley-Beckett. It is based on the novel Anne of Green Gables written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The story centers around Anne Shirley, a 13 year old girl who lost her parents at a very young age. Since then, she worked in a few houses as a servant and later sent to an orphanage. Amybeth McNulty plays the lead character.
She is later adopted by siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert and becomes a part of the family at the Green Gables farm. Since the beginning of the series, Anne displays qualities with her imagination, optimism, intelligence, and talkative behavior. The series shows her using them for gaining trust and acceptability among the peers and the neighborhood.
As the series progresses, it touches on a number of social issues like orphaning, bullying, class discrimination, racism, and freedom of speech. The series highlighted such issues with original or elaborated stories, with many elements ber on CBC. It released on Netflix on January 2020.of the classic novel retained. It ran for three seasons, with the third season-ending in Novem
Why Did it Cancel?
Despite the series being loved for its balanced combination of classic and contemporary elements, CBC President Catherine Tait said on October 2019 that they would no longer be involved with Netflix as they make deals that are harmful for the long term viability of their domestic industry. Such deals benefit Netflix or Amazon, but not their industry.
Right after the last episode aired on CBC, both the channel and Netflix announced the season to be the last one. Another reason that CBC gave was that there was not enough audience in the 25-54 age range.
The Campaign to Revive
Since the announcement of its cancellation, fans have requested on various social media platforms like Twitter and even offline through billboards, for bringing back Anne with an E. Hashtag #renewannewithane went viral on Twitter. Actor Ryan Reynolds and musician Sam Smith also expressed their desire to renew the series.
The show has received 19 award nominations till date, with 9 of them won including Best Drama, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor.
Beckett expressed her gratitude to the fans on March 2020 as they celebrated the third anniversary of the series premiere. The campaign for a season 4 at change.org hit 600,000 signatures in June 2020 and the million mark in July. Currently with 1.4 million signatures, with other campaigns having signatures in thousands, the campaign overall has 1.5 million signatures.
Possibility of Return
In late 2019, Miranda de Pencier, one of the executive producers, thanked the fans for all the love and desire to revive. She clarified that the renewal was not possible at this point and it will not happen. At that time, the campaign had 66,000 signatures. With announcements from CBC, Netflix, and the makers; the chances of a season 4 are very slim.
However, the campaign has obviously continued to grow over the year. Unlike other TV series, Netflix needs to take into account such campaigns as they can earn a lot of viewers in case they bring a season 4. It would be interesting to see a show like this back on screen.
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