As the last new episode of Cinemax's The Knick aired in 2015, this news probably doesn't come as a huge surprise, but it seems that there was always hope that the series would continue. However, Cinemax has announced today that The Knick is officially done. In addition to its sub-par ratings, the reason for the cancellation of The Knick can also be attributed to Cinemax's renewed focus on "high-octane action dramas." Kary Antholis, president of HBO Miniseries and Cinemax Programming, had this to say:
After a critically acclaimed two-season run of The Knick on Cinemax, we will not be going forward with additional episodes of the series. Despite our pride in and affection for the series, as well as our respect for and gratitude towards Steven Soderbergh and his team, we have decided to return Cinemax to its original primetime series fare of high-octane action dramas, many of which will be internationally co-produced.
Steven Soderbergh, who directed every episode of The Knick, had envisioned the series undergoing a soft reboot every two years, with a new director stepping in to shape the course of the series in much the same way Soderbergh did with the first two. So, if we had gotten more seasons of The Knick, they likely wouldn't have been quite the same, not that there would have been anything wrong with that. It would have been interesting to have seen what someone else could have done with that universe, but I guess it's not to be. Antholis had previously described The Knick as "one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my career," but admitted that the series just couldn't find an audience.
Critics loved the show, and I can’t tell you how many studio executives around town have told me it’s their favorite show on television, but it did not find an audience at the level that Banshee did. Even though in terms of an HBO show, The Knick is a modestly priced show, in terms of a Cinemax show, it started to throw our budget out of whack.
After his fairly brief retirement from feature-films, Steven Soderbergh will be returning with LOGAN LUCKY on August 18, 2017. Starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Daniel Craig, LOGAN LUCKY centers around two brothers who set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.