The Man Who Fell to Earth will not return for a second season.
The Showtime series was originally conceived as a one-season limited series, but showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet modified their plans midway through the first season. The Hollywood Reporter explains executives thought the season came to a fitting conclusion.
“Our thanks to the extraordinary Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, John Hlavin and Sarah Timberman who did a great job of turning the David Bowie film into such a resonant tale for our times,” a Showtime spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “And kudos to a wondrous cast led by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Naomie Harris and Bill Nighy for bringing it to life. Alex and Jenny originally intended The Man Who Fell To Earth to be a close-ended story. While we flirted with the idea of expanding it into a second season, we all ultimately decided to embrace it as a one-season story well told.”
The Man Who Fell to Earth, which was first ordered to series for CBS All Access (now Paramount+) in 2019, was based on a 1963 novel by Walter Tevis that was later made into a 1976 film starring Bowie. Ejiofor, who plays an alien who visits Earth in the series, and Nighy, who takes on Bowie’s original character from the 1976 movie, both starred. In March 2021, the show was relocated to Showtime.
The decision to forgo more Man Who Fell to Earth was made before the recent transition at Showtime parent Paramount Global when Chris McCarthy was given control of the cabler in place of David Nevins, who oversaw a portfolio that included Showtime.