Sean Penn’s big-budget space drama The First is canceled by Hulu after just one season
Hulu has given the axe to its outer space drama The First, starring Sean Penn, after just one season.
The show marked the first regular TV series role for Penn, 58, spanning just one eight episode season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Hulu also recently canceled Sarah Silverman’s I Love You, America, which spanned two seasons covering 21 episodes.
Axed: Hulu has canceled Sean Penn’s The First after just one eight-episode season
Like it’s streaming service competitors Netflix and Amazon, Hulu doesn’t release viewership data, but critics were lukewarm on the show.
The show earned just a 68% rating among critics and a 79% rating among viewers on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
The series was set in the near future, following a group of astronauts who attempt to become the first humans to land on Mars.
Not a critical hit: Like it’s streaming service competitors Netflix and Amazon, Hulu doesn’t release viewership data, but critics were lukewarm on the show
Natacha McElhone starred as an ‘aerospace magnate’ who lead this expedition to Mars, with Penn playing Tom Hagerty, one of the five astronauts chosen for the journey.
Hagerty is joined by Kayla Price (LisaGay Hamilton), Sadie Hewitt (Hannah Ware), Aiko Hakari (Keiko Agena) and Nick Fletcher (James Ransone) as the astronauts heading to Mars.
The primary cast also includes Oded Fehr as Eitan Hafri, Norbert Leo Butz as Matthew Dawes, Annie Parisse as Matthew’s wife Ellen, Melissa George as Tom’s wife Diane and Jeannie Berlin as The President.
The First stars: Natacha McElhone starred as an ‘aerospace magnate’ who lead this expedition to Mars, with Penn playing Tom Hagerty, one of the five astronauts chosen for the journey
There is no indication yet if series creator Beau Willimon and the other producers will try to shop the show around to a different network or streaming service yet.
Willimon did have ideas in place for what he wanted to see in Season 2, which he revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere in September.
‘It’s not unreasonable to expect, having seen this launch at the end of season one, that we will [continue to] see the astronauts on the way — perhaps even get to the surface of Mars,’ Willimon said.
No season 2: There is no indication yet if series creator Beau Willimon and the other producers will try to shop the show around to a different network or streaming service yet
‘But, because we’ve invested so much time in Earth, as well, in a parallel fashion we can tell the stories of the people they left behind and who are working on the ground,’ Willimon added.
Willimon previously created Netflix’s House of Cards and wrote the screenplays for The Ides of March and the recent indie drama Mary Queen of Scots.
Penn will next be seen on the big screen in The Professor and the Madman, starring alongside Mel Gibson and Natalie Dormer.
Premiere: Willimon (left, with McElhone, Penn and executive producer Jordan Tappis at the September premiere) previously created Netflix’s House of Cards and wrote the screenplays for The Ides of March and the recent indie drama Mary Queen of Scots