It has been a weird past week for anyone involved with or following Ray Donovan as the series was abruptly cancelled by Showtime. After seeing the reactions from fans and star Liev Schreiber, showrunner David Hollander has spoken out about the show's cancellation, and the hopes of some that a revival may happen.
Given the surprise cancellation, Ray Donovan concluded Season 7 with the idea that it would be returning for Season 8. Characters' fates were left up in the air, and there's a story to tell if another network or service were willing to pick it up. In regards to that, David Hollander had this to say:
I never know. This is a big show. To be fair to our bosses, Ray Donovan, for the Showtime model, was a very expensive show. We were going into our eighth season with salaries and all the step-ups for union. And the move to New York was extraordinarily expensive, so there’s that. Is there an audience that wants to see this, that will create a demand cycle where someone will absorb the risk? I would never say never. It is much easier to do in the now. The sets are still standing. The people are still contracted. The mechanisms are in place. Once we tear down the sets and put the costumes away… it’s a lot of actors who are in demand.
In what sounded like a word of advice to any network or streamer currently eyeing the situation, time is of the essence. Money can be saved by keeping the set up for the Ray Donovan team to press on for Season 8, but in time, that will be torn down and the show's cast will find opportunities elsewhere. Will Ray Donovan get its conclusion elsewhere, perhaps by a streamer looking to add some high quality original content?
David Hollander didn't indicate what he thought about that to Vulture, but did confirm he and the team were blindsided by Showtime's cancellation. Hollander noted that's evident by Ray Donovan's Season 7 finale, which left the stories of characters very open ended.
We’re still scratching our heads. We had no indicator that the show was ending. We were behaving creatively as though we were in mid-sentence. And so, there was no sense that this was going to be a completion. This was in no way a series finale.
The Ray Donovan showrunner did admit that part of the reason the cancellation was so shocking was because Showtime had been adamant on renewing the series in the past. David Hollander said the show had never been on the bubble, and at times, it felt like their team was burnt out on the series while Showtime was pushing them into another season. Hollander also said Season 8 was planned to be the final season, which does make Showtime's sudden cancellation even more confusing.
Will Ray Donovan get to complete its story? CinemaBlend will keep an eye on the situation, and continue to report on all the biggest news happening in television and movies.
