Warrior Nun cover art – Picture: Netflix.
Warrior Nun is returning. News broke this morning that the fantasy teen LGBTQ+ series Warrior Nun will be getting a revival in some form, according to showrunner Simon Barry. Here’s what’s known so far.
As you may know, Warrior Nun first premiered on Netflix in 2020 before its second season eventually returned to the service in November 2022. After poor performance based on Netflix’s internal stats and external sources, the show was quickly canceled the following month, in December 2022.
Of course, if you’ve been on Twitter since that cancelation, you’ve inevitably seen the fan outcry that has taken place.
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Whether it’s the coordinated hashtags or phrases that consistently sit in the trending box, fan campaigns and fansites popping up (such as the well-organized The OCS Newsletter), or dozens of articles constantly talking about the show and the revival efforts, it’s been hard to ignore the Warrior Nun fandom. That’s not to mention the various petitions set up either.
Fans have also put their money where their mouth is too. Billboards were deployed around the globe, including notably outside Netflix’s headquarters in Los Angeles.
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Their voices have been heard, it seems, with Simon Barry (the showrunner of Warrior Nun) Tweeting at 6:16 AM BST (01:16 EST) on June 28th to confirm that Warrior Nun will return, although there are many questions about what this means on paper.
Today I’m happy to officially report that because of your combined voices, passion and amazing efforts – #WarriorNun will return and is going to be more EPIC than you could imagine. More details to come! SOON! Thank-you!! #SaveWarriorNun #WarriorNunSaved ❤️🎬 pic.twitter.com/yuTbRR2L3q
— Simon Barry – legacy blue check (@SimonDavisBarry) June 28, 2023
There are a few important things to note about this announcement of the show returning, with most of those being questions.
Firstly, it’s worth noting that just showrunner David Barry has talked about the revival thus far. Netflix, which usually likes to co-ordinate announcements across its portfolio of social channels and to outlets, has yet to talk about it leading some to speculate the streaming service won’t be the home to any future revival. Netflix also wasn’t mentioned explicitly in Barry’s Tweet.
Secondly, all we know is that Warrior Nun will return. There’s notably no mention of what format it will be returning. Season 3 or a new season is the go-to thinking, but it doesn’t explicitly mention this.
Shows being canceled at Netflix and revived elsewhere aren’t new, but they are exceedingly rare, with Netflix often hanging onto the rights and unwilling to let them go. We have seen a fan campaign revive a show before. Sense8 was notably given a one-off movie to round out the story after being canceled after season 2.
We’re told that Netflix still has the streaming rights to seasons 1 and 2 in perpetuity.
TVLine.com has reported that sources told them that the current plan is to revive the series “via a standalone movie or a shortened final season in order to give fans closure” and notably stated that any revival would not be at Netflix.
What’s on Netflix has since confirmed with sources that any return would not be at Netflix.
There have also been suggestions the revival could be as a comic book. It’s no secret the show is based on a comic book (the comic book author mentioned the revival on his Facebook page today) but it does look like we’ll be getting some kind of live-action revival.
We have reached out to Netflix, who have yet to give us an official response regarding the future of Warrior Nun.
Inevitably there’s a lot more to this story to come, so we’ll keep you posted as and when we learn more.
Are you happy to see Warrior Nun revived? What are you expecting to see from the revival?