James Cameron burst onto the scene with the sci-fi action classic “The Terminator,” and he has since parlayed that success into a very prosperous Hollywood career. Cameron’s “Avatar” made history by becoming the highest-grossing film of all time on two occasions, while his sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” is right up there with it in terms of profitability and currently ranks as the third highest-grossing movie ever. Elsewhere, “Titanic” — Cameron’s award-winning disaster blockbuster starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as lovers on the titular sinking ship — occupies the fourth spot on that same list. Needless to say, the man knows how to write, direct, and produce hits, although even he isn’t immune to projects that fail to gain the interest of the masses.
In 2000, Cameron and Charles H. Eglee co-created “Dark Angel,” a short-lived post-apocalyptic sci-fi action series that was canceled on a cliffhanger ending after two seasons on Fox. Its story follows Max (Jessica Alba), a genetically enhanced super soldier who escapes from a lab and accepts a job as a courier (while also moonlighting as a cat burglar and valiant warrior in the fight for justice), as she tries to evade the people who made her. “NCIS” veteran Michael Weatherly also stars in the show as Logan, a moralistic cyber journalist who aids Max in her quest to stop corruption. Romantic sparks also fly between the pair, but getting to settle down is difficult in a post-apocalyptic world where powerful institutions want to find and capture them.
On paper, “Dark Angel” has all of the ingredients to be a hit, but it wasn’t meant to be in the early 2000s. With that in mind, let’s find out why it was canceled by Fox.
Why Fox canceled James Cameron’s Dark Angel
A high-concept sci-fi series from the mind of James Cameron — not to mention, one that boasted a rising star in the form of Jessica Alba — should have been a big hit. For a while, the future looked bright for “Dark Angel,” too, as the first season was moderately successful. Unfortunately, the second season was moved to the infamous Friday night death slot by Fox (the same one that got Bruce Campbell’s sci-fi Western “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.” canceled a few years earlier), and the rest is history.
What’s more, “Dark Angel” was an expensive show to produce, and it had a history of going over its production budget. Despite this, Fox greenlit a third season only to pull the plug on the show shortly afterwards, which Cameron attributed to network executives panicking after losing ad revenue. As he recalled in Frank Garcia and Mark Phillips’ “Science Fiction Television Series: 1990-2004: Histories, Casts, And Credits For 58 Shows:”
“Their entire annual revenues were cut down two-thirds of what it had been. They didn’t know how to cope. It’s not like they took us off and put a cheaper show in our place. It was just a knee-jerk, ‘Try anything!’”
Fortunately, the cancellation of “Dark Angel” didn’t completely bury it. The show has gone on to develop a cult fan base, and it regularly appears on lists dedicated to series that were canceled far too soon. Still, it would have been nice to see Cameron and co. get to end the story on their own terms, as opposed to the season 2 finale, which raises more questions than answers.
