Why is Alex Rider ending with Season 3? (Why no Alex Rider Season 4?)
We would love nothing more than to see more of the Alex Rider books developed for the Freevee series. Sadly, that is not the case. We take a look at why the show is ending.
Alex Rider Season 3 has been in development for a couple of years now. The second season came out in December 2021, and work started on the third season not too long after that. We’re only just getting that third season.
When Amazon announced the premiere date on Freevee, it came with the disappointing news that it was the final season. Why is that? Has Amazon given us a reason for us not getting a fourth season?
Why isn’t Alex Rider Season 4 happening?
Amazon is never upfront with the reason for a show not being renewed. There are a couple of reasons why this is likely possible.
The first could be linked to viewership. While the series isn’t as big on CGI costs as the likes of Carnival Row and Upload, the cost of producing television is still going up. Around the third season, the costs go up a lot more as the cast pay goes up considerably compared to the first two seasons. If there isn’t a good viewership for the series, the shows end up canceled as the streamers can’t justify the costs.
With a show on Freevee where there is no subscription model, the viewership is even more important. The money is coming from the advertisement revenue, and companies won’t pay for that if the shows aren’t being watched.
On top of that is the time it took for us to get Alex Rider Season 3. This was more than a two-year wait for the episodes compared to the 18-month wait for Season 2. There may have been the concern that the show wouldn’t get its audience back because of the wait. We have seen other shows struggle because there has been such a wait, and Amazon has pre-empted a decline in viewership for some shows after long waits, as we saw with Hunters and Carnival Row last year.
It does sound like the creative team was warned. The third season is based on the fifth book, and from what I remember of the ending (I read it so long ago!), there is certainly a way to wrap up the story as a whole for Alex in the TV series.
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Alex Rider Season 3 drops on Freevee on Friday, April 5.