Prime Video Just Canceled Ride Or Die After One Season, & That’s Bullsh*t

If you’re anything like, well, a lot of people, you binge-watched Ride or Die as soon as it hit Prime Video and want (nay, *need*) another installment ASAP. The globetrotting buddy-crime caper dropped July 15 and promptly took over the platform, shooting straight to the No. 1 spot worldwide on the streamer. How could it not? Watching Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham bicker their way across Europe is objectively a great time.

So, the question on everyone’s mind was clear: Are we getting more? The finale left plenty on the table, but will we actually find out what’s next for our new favorite dynamic midlife duo?

We just got our answer, and unfortunately... it’s not what we hoped.

Has Ride or Die been renewed for Season 2?

No. Prime Video has canceled Ride or Die after just one season. Yes, the hit summer series. The one that rocketed to No. 1 on the platform almost immediately. If you’re confused, you're in good company! Even people who made the show are allegedly perplexed over Prime Video’s decision.

Why was Ride or Die canceled?

That’s the new question we all want answered. Rosie O’Donnell is just as pissed as the rest of us, venting on Threads, “This is absurd — best new show.” Or, as another fan on Threads put it, “Hey so actually I need a full press release and line-by-line explanation as to why this show was canceled after rave reviews because it’s getting to a point.”

And isn’t it, though?

According to Deadline, which broke the cancellation news, the show was crushing it by pretty much every metric. It racked up 927,000 U.S. views in its first two days. It hit No. 4 overall on Nielsen’s streaming chart in its second week with 922 million minutes watched. Over its first 14 days, it was reportedly Prime Video’s most-watched new scripted series in the U.S. in an entire year. It was the No. 1 Prime Video original globally for three straight weeks, and it’s *still* hanging out in the global Top 10 more than two months later.

Plus, the show is sitting at an impressive 96% Tomatometer score and 85% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh! And it reportedly came in *under budget.*

So, what TF gives? Amazon hasn’t publicly explained itself, but Deadline’s reporting floated a doozy of a theory: The show’s core audience is midlife women, and Amazon isn’t too worried about courting them since they statistically already pay for Prime to shop. Meaning, a show made for midlife women doesn’t bring in new subscribers, so why bother? We were so loyal, we got punished for it? Cool, cool, cool. Love that for us.

The theory seems plausible when you consider Amazon renewed its entire YA summer lineup: Elle, Off Campus, Every Year After, and Sterling Point. All shows that Ride or Die objectively outperformed in the U.S., despite those shows getting much splashier marketing. I mean, sorry to be the one to say it, but in no world should Every Year After have been renewed over Ride or Die.

Is there any way we could still get a Season 2?

Actually, it’s looking like a distinct possibility. Paramount Television Studios, the lead studio behind the series, is reportedly shopping it around to other buyers. We’ve seen it happen for other series in the past, like Manifest and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Who knows? Maybe Paramount+ could be the new home for Ride or Die.

How did Ride or Die Season 1 end?

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 1 of Ride or Die.

Just to twist the knife, let’s revisit the finale.

Debbie (Spencer) and Judith (Waddingham) are the absolute best of friends. The kind who tell each other everything… oh, you know, except for this pesky little detail that Judith kills people for a living. When a figure from her past resurfaces and a job goes catastrophically sideways, an unknowing Debbie gets dragged into the mess. The two end up on the run together, dodging the Albanian mob and dealing with a very personal grudge from a rival assassin. Like, these women go through it.

On the seeming other side of the shenanigans, Debbie and Judith reunite on a train in the finale. They’ve met up to toast to new adventures, each off to spend some time in their own pursuits before starting their next chapter. But we, the audience, can see there’s trouble afoot in the form of a possible ambush by other passengers. Judith’s parting line — “we’re only getting started” — is about as clear a Season 2 setup as a show can write.

What would Ride or Die Season 2 have been about?

There’s the Queenie (Savannah Steyn) storyline that could definitely stand to be explored more in a second season. She’s gone undercover with Interpol as the newest recruit of the Director (Bill Nighy), with the goal of taking him down for failing to protect her mother from Ana, aka the vengeful assassin. But given the Director just so happens to be her biological father, there’s a lot of dramatic potential there.

It would have picked right up with the train scene, according to showrunner Matt Miller. “Season 2 would be a totally new story,” Miller told Gold Derby in a recent interview. “So we’d have new bad guys, new villains, new danger, and new countries that Debbie and Judith are visiting, because part of the show is this wanderlust. And without giving away too many spoilers, there’d be a wedding.”

Wait, WHAT. A wedding?! We were robbed.

Series creator Tessa Coates had major plans too, telling TV Insider, “We’ve thought of some big ideas, some big fun pieces, and I think when you’ve done trains and car chases and seen that bit of Europe, then you’re like, ‘OK, now where in the world can we go?’ because we want it to always feel like a big adventure.”

All eight episodes of Ride or Die Season 1 are now streaming on Prime Video. Go watch, rewatch, or put it on in the background just to run up the numbers. Let’s make it even more embarrassing for whoever made this call.