“Evil” creators and executive producers Robert and Michelle King, as well as its stars — including series stars Mike Colter, Katja Herbers and Aasif Mandvi — all wanted the Paramount+ (originally CBS) show to continue ahead of its surprise cancellation at the end of its fourth season, Herbers explained on Saturday.
Herbers tweeted a response to speculation from Collider about “a personal family matter that befell one of the show’s actors, one that affected their availability to complete any additional filming” ahead of the double writers’ and actors’ strikes contributing to the shows cancellation. The actres shared that she’s the cast member in question, but the story isn’t quite as the outlet described, though she did so with a hand heart emoji, seeming to indicate her love for the outlet rather than any upset or attempt to dunk on their story.
“To set the record straight on our cancellation: nobody wanted it. Both the Kings & the actors want to do more. I am the one who had the family matter & was thankfully granted to leave with 6 days left to film to go to my father,” Herbers tweeted.
She continued in her thread, “A day after I left, the show got shut down by the strike. We filmed the remaining 6 days after the strikes ended. Then heard we we were cancelled with 4 additional episodes to wrap up the story. The story will have an ending but also an opening for more. Which is what we all hope!”
The actress also shared the show’s strong streaming numbers, continuing to make her public pitch for the show to be picked up by another service.
“Our numbers indicate we could fill a streamers pockets with more seasons…. We’re the second most streamed original show on all platforms and the seventh overall. Kinda wild!! Who wants to snatch up the good Evil?”
Herbers revealed in subsequent tweets that her father had died. She also praised the Collider article as “great” and added that she only “wanted to clear up any confusion as to our cancellation.”
The actress has publicly lobbied Netflix and Amazon to pick up the series several times, beginning as soon as the cancellation was first announced. On June 30, she shared a photo on X with a heart emoji over her bare foot and joked, “I will uncensor when Netfilx picks us up.”
The show’s cancellation was announced in February. “We want to thank Paramount+ for giving us four bonus episodes to end ‘Evil’ in the world in style,” the Kings explained. “We will miss this show and cast. In many ways it was a dream project, but sadly evil will outlast ‘Evil.’ See you in May.”
However, Herbers and the Kings have since shown more optimism about a potential pickup elsewhere as the show delivered strong viewership numbers on Netflix.
“It’s hard to underscore the ability of Robert and Michelle King to cleverly craft thought-provoking stories that push creative boundaries time and time again, and ‘Evil’ is no exception,” CBS Studios president David Stapf said at the time. “We’re proud to call them partners, and want to thank them both, Liz Glotzer, the entire cast and the crew for bringing these complex characters to life year after year as we celebrate this final season of ‘Evil.’”
