Fans of the Freeform series Shadowhunters are getting some bad news today with the show being cancelled. Luckily, though, there is some good news coming with the bad. While the fantasy series will be ending with Season 3, which just finished airing its first half on May 15, the network has increased the episode count for the second half of the season so that the show can give its devotees a nicely finished story.
Season 3B of Shadowhunters, which is set to air in the spring of 2019, will now include two extra episodes so that fans can get a complete ending to the saga they've stuck with for several years. According to Deadline, the final season is now being called Shadowhunters: The Final Hunt, and the addition of those two episodes to the back half of Season 3 will also allow the show to cover all six of the novels in The Mortal Instruments book series by author Cassandra Clare, upon which the show is based. Even though Season 3B won't air until next year, the previously ordered 10 episodes had already been shot, so the only way to make sure that the show could be completely wrapped up was to give the green light to those extra episodes. The added episodes will act as a two-part finale for the series.
It's always tough when a show you love gets axed, and as we all know by now, all too often it happens and leaves fans hanging onto the end of a massive cliffhanger which answers some questions but poses additional ones that will never be answered. The Shadowhunters cancellation is a rare instance where the network was committed to making sure that fans could have a proper ending. And, in a statement that Freeform released, the cabler admitted to the cancellation being a difficult decision, especially since those at the network are supporters of the drama and know what a fan favorite it had become.
Shadowhunters follows Clary Fray as she finds out, on her eighteenth birthday, that she is a shadowhunter. As a human born with angelic blood, Clary is now charged with protecting humankind from demons as she joins forces with other shadowhunters to locate her abducted mother while discovering her newfound powers and living in a world that she now knows is filled with vampires, werewolves, warlocks and other supernatural creatures.
While Shadowhunters started strong for Freeform when it debuted in January 2016, ratings have been on a downward trend since then, even though the show still has dedicated followers and garners solid buzz. So, while the cancellation makes some sense, so does the network's desire to make sure the Shadowhunters fans at least have a chance to come away from the series finale satisfied.
The final episodes of Shadowhunters Season 3 will air on Freeform next spring, for more on what you can watch on the small screen until then, be sure to check out our summer premiere guide.
