Marvel Fans Launch Petition For ABC to Renew Inhumans

Petitions seem to be all the rage among superhero fans. Now Marvel fans have taken a shot, launching a petition calling for ABC to renew the Inhumans TV series.

Although ABC has yet to make an official announcement, it does appear the network has quietly canceled Marvel’s Inhumans. In December, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s Ming-Na Wen accidentally implied that was the case. More recently, ABC removed the series from their official press site. The future doesn’t look good for the Royal Family of the City of Attilan. Now, a handful of Marvel fans are attempting to come to the rescue. They’ve launched a petition on Change.org, calling for ABC to renew the show. It’s no doubt inspired by other superhero-related petitions, such as the call for the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League.

The petition writer accepts that Inhumans has problems, but in their view they were more to do with execution. The show was fast-tracked, with the first two episodes shot in just 20 days. What’s more, it was clear Marvel and ABC hadn’t given the series a particularly notable budget for special effects. As the result, even the series’s defenders admit it “lacked the feel of a MCU level show.”

For all that’s the case, the fans insist Inhumans has real potential. They point to the example of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1, which got off to a discouraging start but has become a tremendously strong TV series. In this case, the fans argue that critics were unfair to Inhumans, partly because of Scott Buck’s involvement; he came in for heavy criticism after acting as showrunner for the first season of Iron Fist, and they argue critics “transferred that hate for him on this show as well.”

The sad truth is that this petition is unlikely to be successful. Any competitive network has to be quite ruthless when it comes to canceling poorly-performing series. What’s more, ABC has shown no hesitation to cancel Marvel shows in the past. The critically-acclaimed Agent Carter was canceled after two seasons, and to this day the network resists calls to bring the series back. In fact, ABC actually wanted to cancel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after Season 4. It took Disney’s direct intervention to get S.H.I.E.L.D. renewed.

The disquiet among fans is perfectly understandable, though. They’ve followed the adventures of the Royal Family in the comics, and are likely familiar with some of their greatest adventures on the printed page. The fans know what kind of potential the Inhumans really have, and truly believe they could become a hit. Unfortunately, Marvel’s Inhumans series failed to demonstrate that potential, and now some tremendous characters are in danger of being written out of the MCU once and for all. Barring a guest appearance in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Season 1 will probably bring the Royal Family’s story to an unsatisfying end, leaving us with more questions than answers – and a lot of unfulfilled expectations.

Source: Change.org