4 months after Netflix canceled Warrior Nun, the epic marketing campaign to reserve it is larger than ever
The billboard outdoors the Barra Buying Mall in Rio de Janeiro greets passersby with the picture of a younger lady in silhouette, proven towards a darkish purple background. The three-word exhortation displayed beside her — a section that started as a hashtag 4 months in the past and has since grown into a worldwide motion — clarifies the billboard’s function: #Save Warrior Nun.
It’s one in every of 10 billboards that followers of Netflix’s fantasy drama Warrior Nun have raised greater than $40,000 to design and set up all over the world, in cities starting from Milan to London, Phoenix, New York Metropolis, and Los Angeles (along with Rio de Janeiro). Furthermore, these billboards are a tangible illustration of the next-level devotion to Warrior Nun that few, if any, of Netflix’s numerous different TV collection have been in a position to replicate.
And the epic marketing campaign by these followers to save lots of their beloved collection — which additionally features a Change.org petition that’s garnered over 120,000 signatures — is simply persevering with to develop.
When Netflix canceled Warrior Nun again in December after two seasons, to say it got here as a shock to followers of the present created by Simon Barry and starring Alba Baptista can be fairly an understatement. Not solely had the present developed a passionate fandom all over the world, however Season 2 spent three weeks on the streaming large’s international High 10 TV present rating earlier than the unhealthy information arrived.
What’s extra, each critics and followers beloved it. Like, significantly beloved it. Season 2 of the present — about Baptista’s Ava Silva, who’s a part of an historical order of nuns that fights demons — nonetheless has an ideal 100% rating from critics and a 99% ranking from followers on Rotten Tomatoes.
In the event that they needed to, maybe the one factor that followers may possibly discover fault with (apart from the cancellation, in fact) is how Netflix selected to time the discharge of what would change into Warrior Nun’s closing season. Netflix has, in fact, all the time been frustratingly opaque about the way it chooses which reveals reside or die, however what we do know is the corporate’s resolution stems largely from a title’s first-month numbers. And Season 2 of Warrior Nun, sadly, needed to combat for consideration and mindshare in November of final yr towards a bit factor known as the World Cup — in addition to the juggernaut that was the Addams Household spinoff Wednesday.
Right here’s the factor in regards to the marketing campaign to save lots of the collection, although: Don’t dismiss this as simply one other one in every of these cancellation tales. You already know the type — they’re what you usually see each time Netflix kills a present, which sparks a flood of offended tweets within the fast aftermath, together with offended followers promising to cancel their subscriptions. Let’s simply say that the response from Warrior Nun followers has been … properly, very, very totally different.
Along with these billboards and the Change.org petition famous above, the fandom:
- Launched www.warriornun.com
- Kicked off an ongoing postcard marketing campaign, sending handwritten notes to Netflix and aggressive streaming platforms
- Debuted a #SaveWarriorNun Substack for the newest information, information, and insights in regards to the grassroots marketing campaign to save lots of the present (in simply three months, it’s picked up 1,500 subscribers)
- The marketing campaign’s organizers have additionally hosted a number of Twitter Areas conversations with the present’s solid and crew. And the Warrior Nun marketing campaign has been the topic of some 2,450 information articles, whereas the #SaveWarriorNun hashtag has exploded on Twitter (with greater than 12 million tweets and counting, in accordance with the marketing campaign).
And it doesn’t cease there. Brazilian followers are internet hosting a fan meet-up on April 22, organized by the @WarriorNunBR_ Twitter crew, with Rio de Janeiro now the sixth metropolis to have hosted such a gathering. The billboard there may also run by way of April 22. Moreover, Warrior Nun followers have ready analysis papers presenting a valuation of the present for rival streamers like STARZ, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Paramount+, in addition to an open letter to the WGA West in assist of the writers of Warrior Nun.
Followers have additionally organized in-person meetups in Thailand, the Philippines, and plenty of different areas. They’ve shared selfies with #SaveWarriorNun indicators whereas paragliding and scuba diving. They’ve bonded, commiserated, organized, and continued to unfold the phrase. All of which is to say: Netflix might have canceled the present. However the story is way from over.
“I didn’t have nice illustration rising up,” mentioned Kate Witt, who got here out at 19, about why followers like her are nonetheless preventing for Warrior Nun to proceed. “I didn’t see individuals like me on the display in my youth.
“I’ve by no means seen a present present as lovely a illustration as Warrior Nun did. I’m preventing for this present to be renewed so future generations can develop up seeing themselves on display and never carry burdens of internalized disgrace. I’m preventing for my inside youngster who felt that one thing was incorrect along with her for who she loves.”
