Following Simon Barry, the showrunner of “Warrior Nun,”‘s announcement on December 13, 2022, that Netflix was canceling the popular fantasy-drama after two seasons, fans started to gather on social media, on Discord servers, and in one crucial Twitter moment.
Adrienne Place, 42, a Tennessee-based production assistant and fan of “Warrior Nun,” estimated that the number of users on Twitter at any given moment was roughly 6,000. Place noted that Kristina Tonteri-Young, the actor who portrayed the beloved character Beatrice, even made an appearance on the live audio platform to comfort admirers. That’s when we all came together, she remarked.
“Warrior Nun” may not seem like the kind of show that would elicit this level of dedication at first glance. While not receiving much media attention, the Netflix original, which was based on Ben Dunn’s “Warrior Nun Areala” comics and starred Alba Baptista as Ava Silva, a young woman given a new lease on life through a holy artifact that links her to a group of demon-battling nuns, was generally well received by critics.
However, “Warrior Nun” is much more than just a TV series to its most ardent fans. A queer relationship is highlighted in the series, which is headed by a predominantly female cast and is still not often seen on television. It also tackles faith and religious trauma head-on, not avoiding Christian topics. The cancelation of the show meant losing not only a beloved series but also something that many considered as a shining example of representation, according to the devoted fans.
On the day the show was canceled, fans established a cathartic space on Twitter where they could give expression to their feelings. A broader campaign to save the program was prompted by their sincere love for it, their anguish over its demise, and the camaraderie they formed.
Fans of “Warrior Nun” have launched one of the largest, most tenacious, and well-organized campaigns to save a television program in history in the 11 months since word of the show’s cancellation first leaked out. Fans aren’t sure how much of it was successful, but it was successful in theory: Barry declared on June 28 that “Warrior Nun” had been spared, and on August 14, fans were informed by executive producer Dean English that the picture would make a comeback as a trilogy of feature-length films. However, there isn’t any further information available regarding the revival.
Even though there had been fan campaigns before—the first known one was a letter campaign to save “Star Trek: The Original Series” in the late 1960s—the size of the fan group that emerged from “Warrior Nun” is unmatched by anything that has come before it.
After interviewing 13 participants in the incredibly well-organized endeavor, I learned not only how they pulled it off (spoiler alert: a Discord server, an absurd amount of spreadsheets, and a long list of inside jokes) but also how a fandom that functioned like a “very efficient company” also evolved into something that went beyond the show it was intended to support.
