Published Jun 17, 2026, 5:31 PM EDT
Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.
This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
The fate of The Boroughs has been decided.
The science-fiction series follows a group of older adults in a retirement community, who learn of a supernatural threat and a sinister conspiracy. Between the premise and being executive produced by Matt and Ross Duffer, the show has drawn many favorable comparisons to Stranger Things. With a 97% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Boroughs' reviews were also overwhelmingly positive.
Despite the positive reception, according to Deadline, Netflix has now canceled The Boroughs. This decision came despite a season 2 writers' room already being open and the stars reportedly in talks to return. There were also talks of seasons 2 and 3 being filmed back-to-back, as series creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews have previously spoken about having a three-season plan.
The reason for The Boroughs' cancellation is likely due to the viewership, which reached 5.6 million views in its opening weekend and 9.5 million views in its first full week, before falling to 3.7 million views during its second week on the streaming platform. It did not take long after this steep viewership drop for Netflix to cancel, as season 1 debuted on May 21, meaning the episodes were out for less than a month before the decision was made.
The streaming performance may have been affected by the abundance of recent shows from the Duffers. Stranger Things concluded with season 5 at the end of 2025, and they produced Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen and Stranger Things: Tales from '85, which premiered, respectively, on March 26 and April 23, before The Boroughs. Since Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is a limited series, Tales from '85 is the only ongoing Netflix series they are now attached to as they shift to working with Paramount.
More to come...
Release Date May 21, 2026
Network Netflix
Showrunner Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews
Directors Augustine Frizzell, Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Writers James Schamus, Jose Molina, Julie Siege, Tom Hanada
This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
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