‘Tokyo Vice’ Canceled by Max After Two Seasons
“Tokyo Vice” — the crime drama that has run on Max for two seasons — has come to an end, at least for now.
The cancelation was confirmed Saturday at the PGA’s Produced By conference in Los Angeles during a panel discussion about the Ansel Elgort series and the Emmy-winning Max comedy “Hacks.” Max original programming chief Sarah Aubrey, along with “Tokyo Vice” creator and executive producer J.T. Rogers and director and executive producer Alan Poul, detailed the development of the series that was an elaborate production, much of it on the streets of Tokyo.
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Aubrey characterized the decision to end after Season 2, which bowed in February, as something that was planned as a storytelling arc to allow the writers to build toward a clear end point. Rogers also characterized it as a mutual decision to support the storytelling.
“To know you’d have the two-season arc was really wonderful,” Rogers said.
In a joint statement provided ahead of Saturday’s announcement, Rogers and Poul indicated that though the show’s active run is over at Max, they still hope to produce more “Tokyo Vice” at some point: “Over the last five years Max has made sure we got to tell our story,” the statement reads. “They have supported us through thick and thin. Not only did they give us these two seasons, they said yes when we asked to end season one with a series of cliffhangers, and they said yes when we asked for two extra episodes so we could land the plane in the way J.T. had always envisioned.
“We’re grateful not only to Max, but to our partners Fifth Season, who sold the show around the world, and made it a global success story. They were in the trenches with us always, guaranteeing that we could make the show we wanted to make. The response from both the press and from fans, in particular to Season 2, has been overwhelming. It’s been thrilling to find out how deeply viewers have engaged with our characters, and to hear how they are clamoring for more.
“We know there is more story to tell. Of course we’ll see what the future holds, but we are indeed grateful to have been able to share this story on Max until now.”
A spokesperson for Max offered praise for the series: “From ‘Tokyo Vice’s’ richly written material to the gorgeously composed shots to the lived-in performances, the care and creativity of this enormously talented cast and crew shines in every frame of the show. We thank J.T., Alan, Ansel, Ken, Fifth Season, and Wowow for their partnership on this wholly unique modern noir thriller.”
The 10-episode second season of “Tokyo Vice” — the first major U.S. TV show to film entirely in Japan — concluded in early April. The show, starring Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe, was a critical favorite, and Variety‘s TV critic Alison Herman called it “the best show you’re not watching.”
In a postmortem interview with Variety in April, Rogers had expressed hope for a third season, saying he had a potential “very strong thread” for “all of our main characters,” and that the “the story is on paper.”
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