There is a behind the scenes shakeup on Freeform’s fantasy series Shadowhunters. Ed Decter, who developed for television the adaptation of The Mortal Instruments novels and served as executive producer in Season 1, has abruptly exited the series, which was renewed for a second season in March. There is no replacement yet.
I hear Decter departed a few days ago and was not present at today’s first table read for Shadowhunters‘ second season. I hear the departure was over creative differences, and the new showrunner(s) are expected to tweak the series’ creative direction for Season 2. In the meanwhile, production is expected to continue as scheduled, with no impact from Decter’s exit.
The development was unexpected. At the time of Shadowhunters Season 1 finale in April, Decter spoke at length about his Season 2 plans for the show in a number of interviews.
Shadowhunters has been a buzzy show for Freeform, recently winning two Teen Choice Awards. After a highly-rated series premiere, there was a ratings dropoff but the series quickly stabilized and was relatively steady for most of its freshman run.
Yes the premiere was highly rated because we were so anxious to see the new characters & finally continue what we were all waiting for – the 2nd movie that didn’t happen ! The drop off only happened because we read all books, we saw the movie &&& ?? Repeat !! So now we are all so very very excited to FINALLY-FINALLY move on to see what happens next on the series & tell the rest of the story !!!!
Yeesss exactly that’s what I’m saying!
Sounds like Freeform has no appreciation for the guy (or gal) who develops a show there. Really makes other writers not want to work for them. Short-sighted move.
I sure hope that Ed Decter’s departure means that the show’s storytelling flaws are going to go with him — the overuse of what seemed to be rushed, especially tentative first takes of everything, the lack of interest in grounding the characters in the realities of their intersecting worlds, the whiplash-pace that makes it look like Decter doesn’t trust the audience to have any attention span whatsoever. The series needs to ditch the 7th Heaven-Secret Life of the American Teenager hackwork and embrace the comparatively more cinematic storytelling of Teen Wolf.
Terribly upsetting. As a storyteller, Ed Decter isn’t the best. But he was the only one willing to go against Cassandra Claire’s drama and fix the things that ruined her books. Without him there, nothing is stopping her from steamrolling the show.