Cancelled Heels Finds Streaming Home — Could It Lead to a Season 3 Renewal? (Minus Its Stars?)

Heels may not be down for the count, after all.

Following its cancellation at Starz after two seasons, Netflix has licensed the wrestling drama from Lionsgate, TVLine has confirmed. All sixteen episodes will stream on the platform, though a release date has not yet been set.

As for whether Neflix could be led to renew Heels for Season 3 with strong enough ratings, it’s complicated given that the show’s leading men are currently tied up with other projects. Stephen Amell is set to star in the upcoming Suits spinoff Suits: LA, which has begun production in Vancouver, while Alexander Ludwig will headline the MGM+ limited series Earth Abides, based on the George R. Stewart novel of the same name.

But Netflix picking up Heels for a third season — with or without its leads — isn’t unprecedented. After all, the streamer rescued the Peacock comedy Girls5eva from cancellation, optioning a third season that was released in March. (However, less-than-stellar ratings have left many wondering if that encore was the titular girl group’s final act.)

And Heels would fit right in at Netflix, which recently struck a deal with WWE to move the wrestling giant’s flagship show Monday Night Raw from USA Network to the streamer in January 2025. Additionally, Netflix will become the exclusive home for all WWE programming (including SmackDown, NXT, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble) outside the U.S.

Created by Michael Waldron (Loki), Heels followed Jack Spade (Amell), an indie wrestler competing with his younger brother Ace (Ludwig) for their family-run wrestling promotion in small-town Georgia. Season 2 saw Jack and Ace “continue to fight over their late father’s legacy and their individual versions of success, while also working to find their own identity as a ‘face’ or a ‘heel,’” per the official synopsis. The season ended on a shocking cliffhanger, with Jack — spoiler alert — seemingly paralyzed after landing a dangerous Shooting Star Press from the top rope.

In the wake of the series’ cancellation in September, showrunner Mike O’Malley, who pulled double duty as FWD promoter/main antagonist Charlie Gully, revealed that he was actively seeking a new home for the show. “I really do think it’s going to have a life someplace else,” O’Malley previously told Entertainment Weekly.

The Hollywood Reporter was first to report the news.