Roswell, New Mexico spoilers follow.
Not even all the otherworldly powers of every alien combined could come together and save Roswell, New Mexico from cancellation. And for long, longtime fans, this is actually the second cancellation Roswell viewers have been forced to endure following the original's demise back in 2002.
But at least the reboot, Roswell New Mexico, survived for one year extra, bringing this revival up to four seasons in total.
So why did The CW decide to axe #Malex and all their friends? And what could a potential fifth season looked like? Here's everything you need to know about the Roswell, New Mexico cancellation that took place back in May 2022, along with what's next in store for this franchise.
Why Roswell, New Mexico was cancelled
If it's any consolation, Roswell, New Mexico was one of many shows that The CW axed in 2022, including Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow, and even Legacies, the last remaining Vampire Diaries show on air.
Back when the cancellations were first announced, no official reason was given, but industry experts assumed that talks of a sale with Nexstar played a big role in all this. Executive shifts at Warner Bros. following its acquisition by Discovery probably didn't help either.
What to Read Next
Now that the sale has been completed, reports suggest that The CW plans to appeal more to older viewers with their upcoming slate. It's easy to see then why younger-skewing shows like Roswell, New Mexico didn't fit into that vision, plus their reliance on special effects probably made them easier to axe from a financial point of view as well.
Will there be a Roswell, New Mexico spinoff or movie?
When Roswell, New Mexico was cancelled back in May, it gave the writers a small window to adjust their scripts so fans and the show alike could enjoy a proper ending rather than a frustrating cliffhanger that would never be resolved.
However, this final episode still wasn't the ending that Roswell's team had in mind.
Speaking to EW, showrunner Chris Hollier said that: "This [finale] was intended to help launch us to a nice wrap-up of season five. More craziness would've followed."
This "craziness" would have taken the form of multiple time jumps designed to give the show what Hollier describes as a "legacy ending".
"What does it mean when you start to find the people that you want to be with? How do you actually go and generate your own happy ever after? I loved where we were going to take those characters. We were talking about setting the ending multiple years in the future. It would've been another wrap-up with where all of our couples were."
At least Michael and Alex AKA #Malex got the happy ending they deserved.
"We did it for a couple reasons," Hollier says when asked about their wedding. "One, we knew everyone wanted that. It was also a fun way to say goodbye if we had to say goodbye, to bring everyone together. Weddings do that. And then we also wanted, if there was more to come, we wanted to shift them into a new mode, with new challenges to overcome."
However, Hollier admits things would have been a lot darker for Max and Liz, another fan-favourite pairing, if season five had been greenlit, after all:
"There was one moment that we talked about earlier where the console behind Liz might have melted. If someone said, 'You're greenlit for season 5,' that might have been a larger discussion. But I think this is a more fair place to leave the fans."
Expanding on this during another chat with Variety, Hollier said: "I'm very fortunate for the time we had, but you always feel like we had one more bullet in the chamber."
And that's why Max and Liz's story ended the way it did.
"We left it open with a hopeful feeling that lets people's imaginations fill in what happened next when he returned," says Hollier.
But will people's imaginations be filled one day with an actual continuation of the story? The season four ratings were down on season three, so that makes an imminent return seem even more unlikely. To be fair though, it probably didn't help that the show was cancelled before season four had even started to air.
The franchise's only shot now really is another reboot somewhere later down the line. With ten books by Melinda Metz to draw upon, there's still plenty of scope for a new take on Roswell one day. Let's just hope that it doesn't take another seventeen years to get here.
Roswell, New Mexico airs on The CW in the US and on ITV2 in the UK.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
