Netflix faces backlash after canceling “Warrior Nun” after a critically praised season two. After premiering November 10, the second season has gone on to receive a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 99% audience score (8000+ user ratings). The show spent three weeks after season two released in Netflix’s top 10 series on the platform.

Starring Alba Baptista, Kristina Tonteri-Young, and Olivia Delcan, the series focuses on an ancient order of nuns who battle demons and other powerful forces. In addition to showcasing powerful women and a unique plot, the show gained a passionate fan following for showcasing one of the best queer storylines of the year between the characters Ava (Alba Baptista) and Beatrice (Kristina Tonteri-Young). Oftentimes, queer storylines tend to be an afterthought, seemingly thrown together in the name of representation and to check a box. The relationship between Ava and Beatrice (“Avatrice”), was powerful in the way it gave fans a well-developed, slowburn queer romance not usually seen in main character romances.

Over the years queer fans have fought for representation and against the “bury your gays” trope. The last couple years, the fight has become one of fighting against premature cancellation when a number of platforms seem to have no interest in promoting or helping their queer, diverse, and women-led stories succeed. Netflix’s commitment to diversity and inclusion can be called into question, as the lack of promotion and early cancellation of queer stories continues. Earlier this year they also cancelled their original series, “First Kill” – with a prominent diverse, queer storyline.

Instead of succeeding because of Netflix, “Warrior Nun” season two had the success it did in spite of them. If a show can have one of the best performances ever for a Netflix show according to critics and fans on Rotten Tomatoes and still be cancelled, the question for Netflix is what does a queer, women-led show have to do to be good enough according to them?

Fans of the show continue to trend #SaveWarriorNun and #CancelNetflix on Twitter. Netflix has yet to respond.

warrior nun’s cancelation hurts the most out of the other canceled wlw shows bc it was genuinely the best representation we had…the best storyline with the most trust in the team like there was never a moment that i doubted avatrice or warrior nun my rep felt safe in their hands

— emilia 🍒 avatrice era (@lexiescarina) December 14, 2022

The disparities between how Netflix handles wlw series & other lgbtq content is blatant. As inclusive as they promote themselves their track record continues to prove a tremendous disservice to a specific letter. Representation is essential but must be both fostered & sustained.

— Lisa Steinberg 𓄿 (@GoodHumorGrl) December 13, 2022

people need to understand the difference between a wlw relationship being a SIDELINE relationship versus them being the MAIN relationship because i can assure you the representation is not the same.

— elizabeth (@villanellesana) December 13, 2022