Why You Should Be Ready To Say Your Goodbyes To This Marvel Series

Marvel’s Inhumans closes out its first season with a Nov. 10 finale, and fans should expect a cliffhanger or two. But will Inhumans come back for Season 2? While there’s no official word confirming or denying that this particular TV Marvel adaptation will continue, many signs seem to point to Inhumans being a one-and-done type show.

It seems as though Inhumans has been dealt blow after blow, which sets it apart from successful adaptations like Jessica Jones and Daredevil. Inhumans was originally meant to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that didn't come to fruition. It was then was produced into a TV series for ABC and probably meant to run for quite a few seasons. The first few episodes premiered before the airing, in IMAX theaters. But the buzz generated from that was not great. Inhumans only earned $2.6 million for its limited release and failed to beat out even the 40th anniversary showing of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Then came the critics. Both general audiences and professional critics have responded negatively to the series. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of just 8 percent from critics and 52 percent from audiences. ABC has been airing the series on Friday nights, which is far from a prime time slot, especially for a superhero show with links to a major comic book publisher. Inhumans has been criticized for poor dialogue, amateurish effects, and a lack of emotional connection to the material.

Despite the negative press, showrunner Scott Buck did originally have plans to expand upon the Inhumans universe into a second and, potentially even a third season. In an interview with Collider published back in September, he discussed the possibility of future seasons. “We generally know where the first three seasons could go,” he said. “We know our starting point for Season 2, but we don’t know if there will be a Season 2. Hopefully, there will be a Season 2. If so, we know where we’re gonna start, and we’ll very gratefully gear up and get to work.”

But, while Buck was hopeful that there would be at least a second season of Inhumans, critics, fans, and even other directors are doubtful. James Gunn, the director of another Marvel property, Guardians Of The Galaxy, is less optimistic than Buck had been. In a Q&A session on Facebook (that Gamesradar covered here), he was asked if he could "save" Inhumans. His response was, “It does not look like there is much saving left for the Inhumans.”

With all of the negative talk swirling around the series, it even led a couple of outlets to speculate that the show may be pulled from the air and/or cancelled before its initial run had been completed, especially with a suspicious poster making the rounds. Io9 reported otherwise, though, clearing up the speculation about an Inhuman poster which referred to the show as a “complete series" with the proposal that the language on the poster had been the same in June, before critics or audiences had seen the show.

Fortunately, Inhumans doesn't seem to be a harbinger of the end of superhero TV. Agents Of SHIELD will be back on TV soon; the CW/DC crossover is coming up in late November; and the Marvel Netflix universe continues to expand. So, whatever the fate of Inhumans may be, whether that's a surprise additional season or perhaps the closing of a book, the ensemble comic book series did make it on air for one season. And you'll have plenty of other options for scratching that superhero TV itch.