Will Graham, the queer nonbinary co-creator of the A League of Their Own series, opened up about the sudden cancellation of the much-loved show.
Amazon Prime Video announced the cancellation last week, walking back the confirmation that there would be a shortened four-episode second season. In a lengthy X (formerly Twitter) thread, Graham said that he wasn’t given a heads-up by the studio, but found out the news when Prime Video told the general public.
He went on to thank the fans for their support of the show and talked about the importance of queer stories at a time when anti-LGBTQ+ laws and rhetoric are running rampant in the US.
“I see the pain and anger and worry out there, which for the LGBTQIA+ fans of the show is of course compounded by what’s happening across the country right now,” he wrote.
— (@)
A League of Their Own is based on the original 1992 movie of the same name starring Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna, and Tom Hanks and follows the story of an all-women professional baseball team at the height of WWII. While the original hinted at sapphic love, the rebooted TV series makes that all textual and is full of all different kinds of queer characters, including trans characters who often get left out. It was this representation—along with fantastic writing and acting—that created a huge, loyal LGBTQ+ fanbase.
“I’ve never experienced a response to a television show that’s as deep, personal, creative and meaningful as what the fans have done with League,” Graham wrote. “You made a community, you found each other and found joy, which of course is what the show is about. In many more ways than I would ever have let myself imagine while we were making it, you literally bring the show to life every day.”
The series was a critical success and went on to win both the GLAAD Media award and the Human Rights Campaign’s national visibility award, but Graham admitted that he fears the cancellation will feel like “one more invalidation” to LGBTQ+ fans.
“In a time when all queer people are personally and politically under attack across the country, and HRC has declared a ‘state of emergency,’ my biggest fear is that many queer fans will take this reversal as one more invalidation, one more blow, one more… effect of the general politicization of our identities,” he wrote. “Most of us grew up feeling invisible, and, as we gain strength, the predictable backlash forces are trying their hardest to get us to go back underground.”
— (@)
Studio insiders are placing the blame on the shoulders of the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild Strike, a fact that co-creator and star Abbi Jacobson refuted in an Instagram post after she heard news of the cancellation.
“To blame this cancellation on the strike, (which is an essential fight for fair wages, protections and working conditions, etc…) is bullsh*t and cowardly,” she wrote.
Not only was the show lauded by critics, but Graham points out that it was on the “Nielsen Top 10 for three weeks, was the top show on Amazon for a month” and said that the LGBTQ+ community is the “most rapidly growing audience and consumer group in this country.” Fans of the series were so passionate about it that in the time since the cancellation they started a #SaveALOTO campaign in the hopes of changing Prime Videos mind or having another studio pick it up.
“In case anyone needs to hear it: you are not small, niche, modest, off-putting or marginal, and neither are your stories. You are multitudes, you are building and your stories are universal. You are the most rapidly growing audience and consumer group in this country,” he continued. “You are powerful. You are the future, and the people who don’t recognise your importance now will be clamoring to catch up in a few years.”
A League of Their Own is just one of many popular queer shows that have been canceled in the past year, including The Wilds, The L Word: Generation Q, Gentleman Jack, and Batwoman. But fans of ALOTO have some hope that they will get more of the series after the Warrior Nun fandom was successful in their campaign to save the show which will now get a movie trilogy to wrap up the story after initially being canceled.
Graham mentions looking for a new home for the show after the strike ends, but more than that he focused on thanking the fans for loving the series and for creating community around it. “You came out, you changed pronouns, you started living more openly, you gave sermons in church about the show, you opened bars,” he wrote. “But, most importantly, you made a community, you found [one another] and found joy, which of course is what the show is about. In many more ways than I would ever have let myself imagine while we were making it, you bring the show to life every day.”
— (@)