Cast your mind back to 2022 and recall that Sony announced its intentions to bring its sci-fi RPG series Horizon to TV. Umbrella Academy’s Steve Blackman and Lost Girl creator Michelle Lovretta were tapped as co-showrunners, and that seemed to be the end of the story until we got more substantial information like casting and writers. But surprisingly, that show is seemingly no longer coming to fruition in any capacity.
Per Rolling Stone’s Cheyenne Roundtree, Netflix has opted to pull the plug on the series. While details as to why the streamer made this decision are currently unknown, it likely has to do with the recent allegations surrounding Blackman. Last week, the Stone published a report detailing years of alleged abuse and misconduct he enacted on Umbrella writers and actors, up to and including manipulative behavior, crass jokes, and taking credit for work that wasn’t his. Blackman denied the outlet’s allegations at the time, but the cancellation of this show–and his other project, the sci-fi thriller series Orbital–effectively junk the $50 million development deal that Netflix gave him back in 2020.
Last we heard of the Horizon show, Sony mentioned this past that writing was underway for both it and Prime Video’s God of War series. (At time of writing, that show is still believed to be in development.) Following the news of the show’s end, journalist Jeff Grubb mentioned that he’d heard the show’s scripts were considered “bad” by those footing the show’s bill, and if true, that may have also helped seal the deal for its end. That it’s getting junked entirely instead of continuing on with a new showrunner or two lends some credence to whatever he’s heard.
Regardless, losing Horizon is a fairly big blow for Sony, which has been open about wanting to turn its various PlayStation franchises into transmedia giants. The series has more games on the way–a Lego spinoff comes out in the fall, and both a co-op game and MMO are in development–but this definitely puts a dent into whatever grand design PlayStation wanted for one of its big headliners.
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