Hulu Canceled 'Shrill' After Season 3 Had Already Filmed

Since 2012, Aidy Bryant has been making people laugh as one of the full-time cast members on SNL. She kept the jokes coming with her Hulu series, Shrill, which is based on Lindy West's non-fiction work, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman.

The comedy, which debuted in 2019, centers around Aidy's character, Annie Easton, as she attempts to better both her personal and her professional life without changing herself. 

Though her friendship with Fran (Lolly Adefope) is as strong as can be, Annie's on-and-off romance with Ryan (Luka Jones) and her interactions with her high maintenance boss, Gabe Parrish (John Cameron Mitchell), leave much to be desired.

The third and final season of Shrill debuted on the streaming service on May 7, and many are eager to learn how it all ends for Annie and her loved ones. Others are wondering why the beloved series has concluded, and if it was actually canceled.

When the first season of Shrill debuted in 2019, it received critical and fan acclaim for featuring a plus-size main character with no desire to alter her appearance.

The show was quickly renewed for a second season, and it came out in January of 2020. 

By March of that year, Shrill was picked up for a third set of episodes. When the coronavirus pandemic began, the writers began coming up with material and storylines via Zoom. 

COVID-compliant filming for the third season officially commenced in the fall of 2020. The delayed production schedule kept Aidy away from her role at SNL during that time. It took another few months for a release date to be announced. 

In January of 2021, Variety reported that the show would conclude with Season 3. No official reason was given for the news at the time, though many suspected that the pandemic played a role in the decision.  

While announcing the Season 3 premiere date in February of 2021, executive producers Lindy West, Ali Rushfield, and Aidy Bryant indicated to Variety that it was not their decision to end the show. When they worked on the third season, they weren't yet aware that it would be the last. 

Once production wrapped and they found out about the cancelation, they got to work on creating the right ending through editing. 

"It was kind of a cool after-the-fact thing where we were like, 'OK, we have this footage. We have this story that we wrote potentially to go onward but now it's ending and how can we try and make that satisfying through editing?'" Aidy said in an interview with Deadline. "I think, very luckily, we're super happy with it as an ending, and we really like how it landed in this more realistic place, as opposed to feeling like we had to tie it up in this perfect bow and give Annie this beautiful sunset."

The actress then referred to the finale as "authentic."

Though Aidy, Ali, and Lindy are pleased with the final episode, they did have an idea of where the story could have gone had the show been renewed for a fourth season. 

"It would be more of Annie trying to deal with her having been canceled, that situation with the article that she wrote, and trying to just do what’s right after that," Ali explained to Deadline. "I guess seeing where her relationship with Will was going to go, if it was going to be long-term or if that was going to be it, and also seeing what happened with Fran and Em as well."  

All three seasons of Shrill are now available to stream on Hulu.