Last week Apple TV+ cancelled Swagger, the acclaimed show about a high school basketball player. Inspired by the life of Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, it ran for two seasons, with Isaiah Hill playing the stand-in character Jace Carson. But why did the streaming giant decide not to bring it back for round 3?
The reasons, as with many shows unceremoniously cancelled mid-stream, have not been made public. The closest thing to an explanation comes from the show’s creator, Reggie Rock Bythewood, who opened up — as much as he could — about the cancellation in a post on Instagram.
“What an amazing adventure,” Bythewood wrote. “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.
“Apple, while you are not ordering a season three, I made the show I wanted to make. Thank you for that,” he added. “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.”
When it returned for Season 2 this summer, Swagger also brought with it a new track from IDK, entitled “Win.”
While Swagger won’t be receiving any more episodes, the 18 that were made live on Apple TV+.