The TV show Wayne first premiered in 2019 on YouTube Premium, but as the platform saw it couldn’t quite compete with streaming giants like Netflix (which was the ultimate plan), they decided not to proceed with a second season. Then, Amazon Prime took Wayne Season 1 to its platform and got great results. So, is Wayne Season 2 renewed or canceled by Amazon Prime?
The good news is that Wayne Season 2 was never officially canceled. The bad news is, it’s still not officially renewed for a second season, either. The creators and the cast want it to happen badly, and so do the fans, so it’s only a matter of time before the platform decides to go into the production of Season 2.
The creator and director Shawn Simmons already shared that they have already mapped out the entire Season 2, if it ever came to fruition. Also, if you account for the success of Wayne Season 1 on both YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime, it would be crazy not to go with another epic run. Let’s break down everything known about the show so far.
Wayne: A brief synopsis & info
For those who haven’t had the chance to watch Wayne yet, or for those who need to refresh their memory a bit (after all, the show premiered back in 2019), let’s go through some of the key plot details from Season 1, as well as other valuable pieces of information, such as the cast, genre, etc.
If you’re a fan of dark comedy like myself, it doesn’t get much better, and darker than the show, Wayne. It’s one of the best dark comedy shows I’ve seen recently, and it’s completely unhinged with its raunchy humor that’s often borderline excessive and over the top.
The show follows the titular character called Wayne McCullough, portrayed by Mark McKenna – a teenager from Brockton, Massachusets who is kind of a black sheep of the family. Only, in his case, he’s the only kind-hearted individual of the bunch instead of it being the other way around.
One day, Wayne meets this girl called Del, who was selling cookies door-to-door. Wayne falls in love with her, but instead of getting approval from his father and brothers, they corner him and beat him up to a pulp. Meanwhile, Wayne’s dad suffers from cancer, and eventually dies – but not before his beloved Pontiac Trans Am gets stolen.
After his dad’s death, Wayne goes crazy and literally burns down his house, with his dad’s body still inside. He then embarks on a cross-country journey with Del to Florida to try and retrieve his dad’s stolen vehicle. Of course, things don’t go as planned.
I don’t want to spoil all the details, but at the end of Season 1, Wayne and Del confess their love towards one another despite their heavy argument but get separated moments after. Del’s family takes her back home by force, whereas Wayne’s family leaves him to die on the side of a road.
He’s taken to a hospital and then arrested, holding Del’s necklace in his hands in the final shot of the season.
The writing is just amazing – the story is different and refreshing, and, call it my cup of tea if you will, but the humor is just on point most of the time. Mark McKenna is awesome as Wayne and rightfully landed some big lead roles even after Wayne premiered.
Should Wayne Season 2 ever come to fruition, most of the cast will likely return (those who are still alive, at least), and I’m dying to see where Shawn Simmons was planning to take the plot.
Is Wayne renewed for Season 2, or is it canceled?
In a big interview with Screen Rant back in 2020, Shawn Simmons – the writer and creator of the show – said that the plot of Season 2 is all mapped out, and the script is all but finished. All it needs is an official renewal from Amazon Prime, and we’d be good to go. That being said, no word of renewal or cancelation has been made official by the platform as of yet.
Now, it’s funny that we’re talking about Amazon Prime renewing the show for Season 2 when Wayne wasn’t even an Amazon Prime Original, to begin with. Rather, it was a YouTube Premium Original Series that premiered on the platform in 2019 and had insanely good results.
I mean, it had an 8.5/10 IMDb rating, scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the pilot itself had over 27 million views. So, why wasn’t the show renewed for Season 2? Well, the show’s co-writer, Rhett Reese, explained the situation with a Tweet back in 2019.
1/3 This is a hard pill to swallow. 'Wayne' wasn't canceled, per se. Rather, its network was canceled. The series scored 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.5 on IMDB (the highest respective scores of our career). Its pilot has 27 million views.https://t.co/YOwLyb0cl1
— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) August 17, 2019
Essentially, the show wasn’t canceled itself. Rather, it was YouTube Premium that stopped investing in original content, and Wayne was just a collateral victim. YouTube’s plan to compete with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, or Disney+ backfired financially, and they just put that particular aspiration to rest.
Luckily, in November 2020, Amazon Prime stepped in and took Wayne to their platform – not as ‘created by’ but rather as a ‘presented by’ Amazon Prime. Something similar happened to YouTube Premium’s show Cobra Kai which was taken by Netflix. The only difference is, Netflix renewed Cobra Kai and made it an even bigger hit.
So, long story short, as Reese said, Wayne wasn’t canceled, but rather its platform was, and now, it’s up to Amazon Prime to decide whether producing another season would be worth it or not. It’s been two years since they brought Season 1 to their platform, and they still haven’t decided, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
When is Wayne Season 2 coming out?
Knowing that nothing has been made official yet in terms of renewing Wayne for another season, or canceling it completely, means it’s hard to gauge when Wayne Season 2 is coming out, or if it’s coming out at all.
However, assuming that Amazon Prime pulls the trigger and decides to renew the show for another season, it shouldn’t take too long for it to go into production. After all, the cast is essentially the same, and, according to Simmons’ 2020 interview with Inverse, the plot is all but done already.
The only issue would be aligning everyone’s timelines to fit the production. McKenna was busy over the past several years (most notably with Peaco*ck’s One Of Us Is Lying, where he’s the lead), so it would just be a matter of scheduling for Season 2 to go into production fast.
What would Wayne Season 2 be about?
In the same interview with Inverse, Shawn Simmons shared some details and the main plot point he had planned out for Wayne Season 2. Heck, he even knows where he’d go with Season 3! The plot would still mostly revolve around Brockton, Massachusets, his hometown in real life, and around Wayne trying to get his act together:
“I don’t think it gives too much away to say that Wayne’s in juvie. Del’s in a place I’ll hold back on, but the whole season’s about Wayne trying to go straight, trying to earn back Del and find the peace he deserves.”
He added another stinger for fans that are still super excited about the possibility of Season 2 happening:
“I cried when I was writing the [Season 2 pilot] back in 2019, and I’m [already] starting to get emotional thinking about certain moments we might get to do.”
And, it seems that the lead, Mark McKenna, agreed, as he shared his thoughts with Simmons in a text after receiving the script for the Season 2 pilot:
“The script that you have for the first episode of Season 2 is probably the best of the Wayne saga I’ve read. It would just be… very nice to be able to make it.”
So, there you have it. The cast members want it to happen. The showrunners want it to happen. The fans (read: me!) are DYING for it to happen. Amazon Prime, what are you waiting for? Give us more Wayne!
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