'The Crossing' Won't Return For Season 2, But There's Still Some Good News

When ABC's The Crossing premiered in April, it took its place in a long line of TV's dark science-fiction thrillers. The Crossing stars Steve Zahn as Jude Ellis, a sheriff in small-town Oregon who has to deal with an unbelievable problem. The local beach in the fictional town of Port Canaan is filled with war refugees seeking asylum from Apex, a group of highly evolved humans who started to exterminate people who aren't like them. The major plot twist is that these refugees are Americans from 180 years in the future, and some of them may be a threat because of superhuman powers. The show’s premise seemed able to take it anywhere, but The Crossing will not return for Season 2, according to Deadline, so the two-part season finale on June 9 will be the end of the series.

The Crossing wasn’t the only new show to get booted from ABC’s lineup after the 2017-2018 season. Entertainment Weekly reports that fellow drama series Deception and comedies Alex, Inc., The Mayor, and Kevin Probably Saves the World were also canceled after just one season each. Two limited series, Marvel's Inhumans and Ten Days in the Valley, were also confirmed not to return.

The Crossing’s premise drew immediate comparisons to former ABC series Lost, which ended in 2010. The network prompted some of those comparisons — as Vulture noted, ABC reminded viewers that The Crossing came “from the network that brought you Lost” during the show’s marketing campaign. Co-showrunner Dan Dworkin talked about the comparisons to Lost in a FanSided interview, calling the marketing tactic a blessing and a curse. “It’s nice to be grouped in with Lost,” he said. “Obviously, it’s an important show, a seminal show for our generation. Then it’s kind of a curse because you’re being held up against something that’s so mightily regarded." Dworkin went on to point out the differences between his show and the hit J.J. Abrams drama. "If you watch The Crossing, the rhythm is different and periodically similar in tone, but it distances itself from Lost for better or worse.”

The constant comparisons between The Crossing and Lost may have been daunting for the team behind the show, but the show stirred up enough interest to bring in respectable ratings. According to Deadline, the premiere of The Crossing was ABC’s second-most-watched debut for its time slot in nearly three years, behind only the hit series The Good Doctor. It also inspired a podcast called The Crossing Podcast, which recapped and analyze every episode as the story progressed each week. Per the descriptions on its website, the podcast featured Dworkin and his fellow showrunner and series creator Jay Beattie talking with science experts, inventors, and hackers about the realistic components hidden in the sci-fi premise.

After The Crossing’s cancellation, fans expressed their frustration on social media.

There was, at least, some good news for the show's audience. While the cancellation of a new series often means viewers are left without resolution — and sometimes even stuck with a cliffhanger — The Crossing fans won’t have to wonder what happened to Sheriff Ellis and the group of refugees in Port Canaan. Dworkin assured fans on Twitter that Season 1 was written "to be a complete story in and of itself." He also thanked fans in subsequent tweets for their support and said they would be happy with the final episodes.

With the success stories of shows like Timeless, which was canceled by NBC and then brought back by the same network, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which NBC picked up in May after Fox dropped the show, some fans are likely holding out hope that The Crossing can find a new home. But if the June 9 finale is indeed the end, at least fans can take comfort in knowing the show’s only season was designed to work on its own. And according to Dworkin, they'll be left with an "epic" ending.