The Armando Iannucci comedy series “Avenue 5” has been canceled after two seasons at HBO, PvNew has learned.
“Going to space with Armando Iannucci has been an incredible journey,” an HBO spokesperson said. “While we will not be moving forward with a third season of ‘Avenue 5,’ we look forward to many more adventures together.”
The series originally debuted on HBO in January 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic production on Season 2 could not begin until late 2021, with the second season finally debuting in October 2022. The series ultimately received middling reviews upon its release and generated only modest ratings.
The series starred Hugh Laurie, Josh Gad, Zach Woods, Rebecca Front, Suzy Nakamura, Lenora Crichlow, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Ethan Phillips.
The series took place in the not-so-distant future when space tourism is a booming business. Per the official logline, “While manning a luxury spacecraft owned by Herman Judd (Gad), Captain Ryan Clark (Laurie) finds himself in over his head when the ship is thrown disastrously off-course – turning what was meant to be an eight-week cruise into an eight-year journey.”
Iannucci created the series and served as executive producer along with Kevin Loader and Will Smith. Keith Akushie, Jon Brown, and Sean Gray were co-executive producers. Ian Martin and Rose Heiney were supervising producers, while Richard Daldry was a line producer. The series was a co-production between HBO and Sky UK.
Iannucci is staying in business with HBO, however, as he is executive producing a pilot called “The Franchise” for the premium cabler. That show is about the crew making a blockbuster superhero movie.
