When it was first announced that “Minx” would not be returning to HBO Max, it was certainly a “rug pull” for the sex-positive dramedy’s cast and creators. But it wasn’t long before that “sad shock” led to a rebirth at Starz.
“It’s actually kind of an honor because we felt the response from the crowd right away, and we felt the anger from people,” Jake Johnson, who plays porn distributor Doug Renetti, told TheWrap in an interview conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
The team quickly learned three streamers were bidding on the series after its cancellation at HBO Max. Suddenly, the outrage and shock around their series’ abrupt ending became something far more positive.
“Having that kind of response from the public was just so encouraging,” Ophelia Lovibond, who plays feminist editor-in-chief Joyce Prigger, said. “To get that while we were still shooting gave everyone a real boost and improved the camaraderie on set. It was a blessing in disguise, actually.”
Johnson described Season 2 as a sort of “relaunch” or “restart” for the series. He also joked that the attention Starz’s saving of the series produced sounds like the sort of hare-brained scheme his hustler of a character would concoct. After all, a scrappy, risqué and feminist piece of media flirting with certain failure only to be saved at the last minute and made stronger than before is the entire plot of “Minx.”
“I would like to say this was all a genius marketing play. Actually, Doug Renetti put this all together. This is all fake,” Johnson joked.
But while executive producer Paul Feig is ultimately grateful that his show was saved and that HBO Max allowed the cast and crew to finish the last week of production as well as all of post-production, he has a harder time looking at the “Minx” cancellation through rose-colored glasses.
“It’s always a sad shock when your show gets pulled for whatever reason it is. And this one was definitely a rug pull, just because we were a week away from finishing Season 2 production,” Feig said.
A veteran in the world of television, Feig remembers the days when weekly ratings gave him a sense of whether his show was going to be renewed for another season or canceled. “But this, since it was such a tax business decision, was like, ‘Woah, wait. What?’”
Feig’s vast experience caused him to pause again when he learned “Minx” was being optioned to other streamers. He said that only a few knew that the series continuing on was an option: Dan Magnante, Lionsgate Television and himself.
“But again, you just don’t know. I’ve been in those situations before,” Feig said. “When ‘Freaks and Geeks’ got canceled, way back when, MTV wanted to pick it up. We were like, ‘Oh, my God. Thank God.’ But they said, ‘We need to make it for like a quarter of budget.’ We can’t do that. So you just never know.”
There’s another reason why Feig and the team behind the series were “sweating.”
“It’s very stressful now because of this much recent development we got caught in, but which is happening across the board,” Feig said, referring to the trend of streamers completely removing their own original series or movies.
“That’s chilling, I have to say, because your show’s gone,” Feig said. “I mean, ‘Love Life’ you can buy on Apple TV, but otherwise it’s gone. And so many other people’s shows are just gone. They’re not even available anywhere. Honestly, it takes it back to the old days of network TV where, unless you had a show that went on 75 or 100 episodes and you got to syndication, if your show got canceled, it was gone.”
But ultimately, all three “Minx” alum are happy with the switch to Starz. Johnson and Feig both praised the cable network’s marketing of this season. “It’s felt really nice to have them really believe in us,” Johnson said. “I think we landed in the right spot.”
“I’m thrilled that [Starz is] doing what they’re doing. You know, HBO Max did what they could for us, but we feel we’re much happier at Starz,” Feig said.
New episodes of “Minx” Season 2 premiere on Starz weekly on Fridays.
