Fans have awaited news about Glow season 4 for long, and we’re sorry to say, the show will not be renewed.
Glow is an American comedy-drama television series developed for Netflix by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch. The show was based on a fictionalization of the characters and themes of David McLane’s 1980s syndicated women’s professional wrestling circuit Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (or GLOW).
Why was canceled? Is there any chance that the creators change their minds? Here’s all you need to know about Glow season 4.
Will Glow be Renewed for Season 4?
Initially, (on September 20, 2019), the series was renewed for a fourth and final season. However, in October 2020, that decision was reversed by Netflix, and the final season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a production shutdown.
“COVID has killed actual humans. It’s a national tragedy and should be our focus. COVID also apparently took down our show,” series creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch said in a statement to Deadline.
“Netflix has decided not to finish filming the final season of GLOW. We were handed the creative freedom to make a complicated comedy about women and tell their stories. And wrestle. And now that’s gone. There’s a lot of sh*tty things happening in the world that are much bigger than this right now. But it still sucks that we don’t get to see these 15 women in a frame together again.”
“We’ll miss our cast of weirdo clowns and our heroic crew. It was the best job.” They ended their note to fans with a plea: “Register to vote. And please vote,” they added.
Production on GLOW’s fourth season was roughly three weeks into it when it was halted in mid-March because of the rising COVID epidemic. (On February 19, Brie released a photo from the set.) GLOW had finished one episode and was working on a second when it was shut down.
What was the Reason Behind This Decision?
“We’ve made the difficult decision not to do the fourth season of Glow due to COVID, which makes shooting this physically intimate show with its large ensemble cast especially challenging,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are so grateful to creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, Jenji Kohan, and all the writers, cast and crew for sharing this story about the incredible women of GLOW with us and the world.”
Netflix, which is a studio on the series, has been working on methods to get the project back into production for the past seven months. GLOW was shot completely in Los Angeles, which has proven to be one of the more difficult locales to get large-scale productions back up and running. The physical needs of wrestling — a key aspect of the program — make it high-risk to create safely under COVID. Physical contact, heavy breathing, and exertion are all essential for wrestling but should be avoided during a pandemic due to the risk of spreading the virus.
Already a costly, high-end series. GLOW incurred significant additional COVID-related expenses because to its huge cast of 20. This, along with the ambiguity surrounding COVID-19 and the intrinsic physicality of the series, which had to be addressed, drove the expense of the series too high for Netflix to proceed. Furthermore, GLOW would not have returned to the air until 2022, at least two and a half years after Season 3.
With the huge delay and higher production expenses, Netflix executives were skeptical that there would be a large enough audience to warrant the investment at that moment.
Will Glow Season 4 Ever Come Out?
Another enlightening feature of Gilpin’s remarks is that they demonstrate that GLOW might have finished its run with minor tweaks without having to worry about the physical contact of professional wrestling during COVID-19. The show had already begun to transition away from including battle sequences into its episodes, instead of focusing on the individuals and their inner lives and relationships. The last season might have continued in a similar spirit, giving viewers the opportunity to bid farewell to a world they’d grown to love. Hopefully, it will happen again sometime.
What Will Glow Season 4 Be About?
Ruth Wilder, a failing actress, auditions in Los Angeles in 1985 among many other women for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, a nascent professional wrestling organization. Because of his sardonic temperament and frequently unusual work style, she fights with Glow’s director Sam Sylvia. Ruth soon finds that Sylvia has cast her old best friend, veteran soap opera actress Debbie Eagan, in the production. Ruth and Debbie had feuded after Ruth had an affair with Debbie’s husband, Mark, whom Debbie later divorced. The conflict between the two ladies has the potential to make or ruin the budding program.
The show explores the personal and professional lives of the show’s various cast and crew as they navigate the 1980s in Southern California and Southern Nevada.
Gilpin made a remark on how Glow may return in the future. She also discussed what may have happened to her character, Debbie Egan, if the series had been allowed to continue.
“My pitch is that we do it in 20 years and we have a ‘Mare of Easttown’-esque season four, or ‘Golden Girls’-esque. Can you spoil something that’s never going to come out? Will it come out? I think that, without spoiling, Debbie continues on a career path maybe to a detriment, focuses on that, and suddenly wakes up and realizes her personal life is not what she wants it to be. Can you have it all? Probably not.”
Glow Season 4 Potential Cast
- Alison Brie as Ruth “Zoya the Destroya” Wilder
- Betty Gilpin as Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan
- Sydelle Noel as Cherry “Junkchain”/”Black Magic” Bang
- Britney Young as Carmen “Machu Picchu” Wade
- Marc Maron as Sam Sylvia
- Britt Baron as Justine “Scab” Biagi
- Kate Nash as Rhonda “Britannica” Richardson
- Gayle Rankin as Sheila “The She Wolf”
- Kia Stevens as Tammé “The Welfare Queen” Dawson
- Jackie Tohn as Melanie “Melrose” Rosen
- Chris Lowell as Sebastian “Bash” Howard
Kia Stevens (Tammé), who has wrestled as Awesome Kong for TNA and AEW while performing as Kharma for WWE, is among the show’s real-life professional wrestlers. Among those having formal experience are:
- John Hennigan as Salty “The Sack” Johnson, a trainer who appeared in Season 1
- Tyrus and Carlos Edwin as Carmen’s wrestler brothers
- Joey Ryan as a wrestler known as Mr. Monopoly
- Laura James as Mr. Monopoly’s valet, “Crystal”
- Alex Riley as a wrestler known as Steel Horse
- Brooke Hogan as night club manager Amber Fredrickson
- Chavo Guerrero Jr. as Chico Guapo
- Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian as unnamed wrestlers
Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Gorgeous George appear in archived video footage in episodes 1 and 4.
That’s all we know about Glow Season 4 as of now. Stay tuned to this space for more updates
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