Warning: Spoilers for the final season ahead.
Pretty much every Penny Dreadful fan was stunned when their favourite show met with a surprise ending earlier this summer.
Unlike Game of Thrones' long goodbye, Penny Dreadful came to an abrupt conclusion at the close of its third season without any announcement beforehand.
At the TCA press tour this week, Showtime programming president Gary Levine revealed that it was always writer John Logan's plan to end Penny Dreadful with the death of the mystical Vanessa Ives (Eva Green).
"I think we all together came to the idea [of], 'You know what? The series has made bold moves in all different directions. Let's make a bold move of putting up 'The End' at the end of the final episode and then announcing to the world that it was over'," Levine explained.
However, Showtime CEO David Nevins was trying to convince John Logan to stick with Penny Dreadful up until the final episodes were actually written.
What to Read Next
"I think [Logan] always envisioned a three-season arc for her and that character," he told reporters.
"I was trying to keep open the possibility of going beyond, but as we were going into that final season, it became clear that the combination of that character and John as a writer were the heart of the show, so it seemed like it was going to be foolhardy to continue going."
He continued: "The death of Vanessa Ives was plotted… So then it became a question for us: Is there a life for the series beyond both Vanessa Ives and John Logan's writing?
"And for us, we thought the series would just lose its authenticity that way. So it was a moving target, which is partly why we chose to end it."
The fans weren't the only ones caught off-guard by Penny Dreadful's untimely demise - even star Billie Piper was surprised by its end.
"As actors, it was pretty upsetting… but I think in a way it sort of worked - everyone's story got tied up, and no-one was expecting it to be the end," Piper said. "So they sort of won in every way. It was just very sudden."
Penny Dreadful was adapted from the great works of gothic horror and brought iconic monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolf Man into the same world.
Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
