In a shocking twist (like multiple scenes in the series), Paramount+ has made the decision to not move forward with the third season of Why Women Kill, stopping it dead in its tracks following a two season run. Variety reports that although the anthology project was given its Season 3 renewal in December 2021, Paramount+ decided to axe the production before going any further with it. The news will come as a shock not only because of the previous renewal, but due to the following behind the dark comedy. With each season more scandalous and bloody than the one before it, it’s a shame that audiences won’t be able to see what story was going to be told next in the Marc Cherry created drama.
No specific reason was given for the abrupt cancellation, but a Paramount+ spokesperson gave a statement, which reads:
Paramount+ has made the difficult decision not to move forward with Season 3 of ‘Why Women Kill.’ We would like to thank our partners at CBS Studios and Imagine Television Studios, the amazing creator and showrunner Marc Cherry and the incredible writers, cast and crew for two memorable seasons.
And just like that, the show’s over. The one thing fans can take solace in is that because Why Women Kill was an anthology series, no loose ends need to be tied up. Both the first and second seasons answered the question behind the title, taking audiences on the twisted, sometimes comical journeys behind why the women at the head of it all would wind up becoming murderers. The first season, which landed on the streaming platform in 2019, followed three different stories over the course of three separate decades. While the tales took place in 1963, 1984, and 2019, the women at the core were tied together by calling the same Pasadena mansion home. Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Alexandra Daddario, each woman was also connected through the driving factor that their partners were cheating on them in one way or another.
Season 2 dropped during the summer of 2021 and only took place in 1949 following one woman’s determined, and unhinged, rise to the top. That season featured the likes of Allison Tolman, Lana Parrilla, B.K. Cannon, Jordane Christie, Matthew Daddario, Veronica Falcón, and Nick Frost.
The cancellation of Why Women Kill proves that nothing in Hollywood is ever truly safe. You can have a dynamite series, with a creator as legendary as Cherry (who was also behind the Desperate Housewives), and even a killer lineup of executive producers including Imagine’s Brian Grazer, and your series can still get chopped.