“After cementing the characters as canonically queer, Netflix shut the door on any further exploration of their relationship”
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY NETFLIX
When you’ve got a Top 10 trending, fan favourite, sapphic fantasy drama series like Netflix’s Warrior Nun, there’s only one logical thing to do – cancel it. Despite receiving the highest audience score on Rotten Tomatoes for a Netflix original show, on 13 December it was announced that there would be no third season for the beloved series.
Based on the comic book character Areala, Warrior Nun is a supernatural show that follows the journey of orphaned teen Ava Silva after she finds out that she has superpowers. Not only that, but she is the chosen Halo-Bearer for a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns. Pulled into the ancient community of nuns known as The Order of the Cruciform Sword, the series shows Ava battle demons with her newfound powers. Alongside this, the show was loved by fans for its sapphic romance storyline between Ava and Sister Beatrice. Despite having zero promotion from Netflix, the show debuted at 26.22 million hours viewed.
The cancellation of Warrior Nun is just another casualty in the trend fans have coined #CancelYourGays. 2022 has seen the premature end to a number of sapphic fan favourite shows such as Netflix’s First Kill and Prime Video’s The Wilds despite their success and cult following. Shows like Warrior Nun are left on cliffhangers that will never be answered, with romances that were never followed through and queer characters that get stripped of their voices. The #CancelYourGays movement follows only six years after fans took to Twitter against #BuryYourGays which advocated against the often unnecessary deaths of leading queer characters.
While production companies are no longer killing off their LGBTQIA characters so quickly, they certainly aren’t giving them a platform. Research by Autostraddle found that 140 TV shows that depicted queer women or trans characters were cancelled after one season. Most of these shows were performing well at the time of cancellation such as Netflix’s series Teenage Bounty Hunters which had a 13-day streak in the Top 10 before it was axed from the streaming service.
The backlash for the cancellation of Warrior Nun shows that there is a high demand for sapphic representation on Netflix. #SaveWarriorNun is being used on Twitter by fans to try and regenerate hype surrounding the show. It seems cruel that many streaming sites like Netflix tease audiences with good representation of LGBTQIA characters which are then abruptly cut off with no explanation.
Fans had fiercely backed the queer relationship in Warrior Nun, tweeting and making fan edits of the ship #Avatrice. Season two gave viewers the Avatrice content that was missing from its debut season, which feels even more crushing with the recent cancellation. After cementing the characters as canonically queer, Netflix shut the door on any further exploration of their relationship.
@loverofsexynuns protective girlfriend♡|#avaandbeatrice #warriornunnetflix #bea #avasilva ♬ sonido original – eva and bea's wife
Netflix had laid the table for its supernatural sapphic series, but never managed to serve dessert. Disappointing, but unsurprising, Warrior Nun’s cancellation marks yet another unfinished queer project, leaving fans forever questioning what happened to their beloved Ava.
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