After two incredible seasons of The Knick, Steven Soderbergh expressed hope early last year that his medical drama would return with a brand-new cast for perhaps four more seasons. “It was always conceived in two-year chunks,” he said. “The writers met yesterday to talk about what year three and four would look like — when would it take place, who are the characters. We always imagined every two years we would annihilate what came before and start over. And that’s what we’re doing now.”
A year later, and it looks like that won’t be happening as Cinemax have confirmed the show has been canceled. “After a critically acclaimed two-season run of The Knick on Cinemax, we will not be going forward with additional episodes of the series,” Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and Cinemax Programming, tells TV Line. “Despite our pride in and affection for the series, as well as our respect for and gratitude towards Steven Soderbergh and his team, we have decided to return Cinemax to its original primetime series fare of high-octane action dramas, many of which will be internationally co-produced.”
While it’s disappointing we won’t see where this series could have gone next, the John Thackery-led storyline was a perfectly-executed one and it gave Soderbergh an ideal break from the world of film. He’ll also be back this year with not only a new feature, Logan Lucky, but with the ambitious-sounding TV show Mosaic, too. In this pliable age of television we wouldn’t rule out a resuscitation of The Knick, especially considering Soderbergh could just use an all-new cast, but for now we’ll mourn the loss.