Source: Apple TV+ / Swagger
After two full-court runs on Apple TV+, the exceptionally brilliant basketball drama Swagger has been canceled.
Spotted on Deadline, the sports-themed drama loosely inspired by NBA champion Kevin Durant’s life as a young hooper growing up in Washington D.C., will not get a third season.
The show explored the ups and downs in elite youth basketball and how players, their parents, and coaches handled the pressure. The show starred O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isaiah Hill, Shinelle Azoroh, Quvenzhané Wallis, Caleel Harris, Tristan Mack Wilds, Tessa Ferrer, James Bingham, Solomon Irama, Ozie Nzeribe, and Jason Rivera.
The show creator, Reggie Rock Bythewood, announced the sad news via a statement on his Instagram account.
“What an amazing adventure. In our two seasons, we have launched careers, disrupted genre, brought forth humanity through our characters, told stories we care deeply about, revolutionized the way to shoot basketball and had fun,” Bythewood wrote.
Adding, “Apple, while you are not ordering a season three, I made the show I wanted to make. Thank you for that. Cast, writers and crew, you have my gratitude. Walk off the set with Swagger. For our FAMbase, you lifted us in ways we could have never imagined. To the industry, don’t take your foot off the gas. Keep telling our stories.”
Social Media Is Not Happy About The News
Despite a valiant push from Bythewood, director Matthew A. Cherry, and the cast, the show still got the axe. Many have taken to social media to express their disappointment that Apple TV+ has cut one of the few shows with a predominately Black cast.
“So Apple TV+ now has *checks notes* ZERO shows with a minority lead. (Swagger – Cancelled. Truth Be Told – Cancelled. Hijack – S2 – Unconfirmed. Changeling S2 – Unconfirmed.) Got it…,” one user wrote on X.
CassiusLife is also heartbroken about the news. We featured the men of Swagger for our November 2021 digital cover.
Despite Swagger not returning, Reggie Rock Bythewood and his Undisputed Cinema banner he runs along with his wife, director of The Woman King, Gina Bythewood, is still working.
They are teaming up for MLK/X, the latest installment in National Geographic’s Genius series, and it “will focus on two iconic geniuses — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X — and how their dueling philosophies helped usher America through the Civil Rights Movement.”
Until then, you can see more reactions to Swagger being canceled in the gallery below.
Photo: Apple TV+ / Swagger
