Apple TV is not moving forward with a second season of The Last Frontier. The series was co-created by The Blacklist creator Jon Bokenkamp and drew comparisons to the NBC show, which ran for 10 seasons.
Variety reported the news of The Last Frontier's cancellation, which comes two weeks after the season 1 finale on December 5.
The Last Frontier's cast is led by Jason Clarke, who plays a U.S. Marshal named Frank Remnick. When a plane carrying dangerous fugitives crashes outside his town in Alaska, Frank must protect those under his jurisdiction and uncover the larger conspiracy in play.
In addition to Clarke, the series regulars included Dominic Cooper, Simone Kessell, Haley Bennett, Alfred Woodard, Dallas Goldtooth, and Tait Blum. Bokenkamp co-created the series alongside Richard D'Ovidio.
When comparing The Last Frontier and The Blacklist, Bokenkamp shared with ScreenRant that he sees the Apple TV thriller as "a relative" to the NBC series. This is partly because each of The Last Frontier's episodes primarily focuses on a different escaped fugitive.
Similarly, most episodes of The Blacklist explored a different individual on Raymond Reddington's titular list, all while dealing with a larger narrative. Check out Bokenkamp's comments below:
We try to have each episode feel like its own movie. Each episode sort of features one of the inmates, so while we have that episodic feel, we've also got a longer overarching mystery that takes place over the course of the season. So that hybrid, I think, is a fun space, and I think Blacklist fans will recognize and like that.
While The Blacklist has a 91% critical score and 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the response to The Last Frontier wasn't as favorable. It received a 46% Tomatometer score and 50% Popcornmeter score. Many reviews praise the premise, but note that uneven pacing and other issues make it difficult for the series to live up to its initial potential.
Despite the response from critics and general audiences, the cancellation is somewhat surprising given that the show is seemingly still performing well more than two months after first premiering on October 10. On Apple TV's global charts, The Last Frontier is in second place, only behind Vince Gilligan's hit sci-fi series Pluribus.
As for The Last Frontier could have gone if it continued, a change in setting was teased in an interview with Variety after the finale, as D'Ovidio explained that “I think that we’ve discussed many avenues to take with the second season, but we’ve pretty much exhausted a lot of stories in Alaska.” Bokenkamp hinted at other season 2 story details as well.
We’ve certainly talked a lot about where they end up, maybe a beach somewhere. But it also occurs to me that the U.S. Marshals hunt bad guys around the world. Sidney and Havlock represent a problem to Frank, but that doesn’t mean they are his only problem.
The Blacklist's 10 seasons vary in quality, especially in the later seasons and after many key character exits, but the show still enjoyed a long run consisting of 218 episodes. The Last Frontier ends with only one season and ten episodes, but it could have gone on for at least another season given the ideas that Bokenkamp and D'Ovidio had about where the story was headed.
