Amazon cancels 'Cruel Intentions' reboot after one season, and users are just now finding out it existed

Amazon’s Cruel Intentions reboot just got the axe after one Season, and no one’s surprised. The show, which tried to put a modern spin on the 1999 classic, premiered in November 2024 after a pretty rocky development process.

But between the awkward writing, forgettable cast, and the fact that literally no one was asking for this remake, it never really stood a chance.

Now that it’s been canceled, the internet is having a blast dunking on it. Fans are calling it a blessing in disguise, cracking jokes left and right, and saying this is the only Cruel Intention that actually paid off.

Taking a pro max level dig, a user (@XFilesAesthetic) said:

"So this is how I learn that there was a cruel intentions remake."

The barn has never been burned this harshly before.

Another user (@english_shamar) added:

"Damn, that was quick."

Well, this one was buried before anyone even knew it was alive.

One user (@ZENKHIII) commented:

"Thank God, it was terrible, you cant gossip girl a classic movie like this."

What do we learn from this? You can’t just throw in influencers, pop songs, and scandalous texts and call it a day.

One user (@MovieManKev) joked:

"So they DID have Cruel Intentions toward the show. deliciously ironic."

It’s almost as if the universe itself rejected this reboot.

A user (@Lennyfrigginleo) asked:

"There was a show????"

A user (@FilmFolioAppl) quipped:

"First they remade Cruel Intentions, then they gave it the most cruel intention of all: cancellation. 💀"

A user (@brdrlinefanatic) suggested:

"Cruel Intentions, Buffy, Harry Potter… Hollywood desperately needs to stop ruining legacies that are still relevant 20+ years later."

They’re so obsessed with reboots that they’re forgetting why these originals were hits in the first place.

---

Cruel Intentions reboot just got yeeted off the air

According to Variety, despite the show’s “intriguing premise,” critics weren’t feeling it. It flopped with a sad 24% on Rotten Tomatoes.

But audiences actually liked it, giving it 81%. Still, liking it wasn’t enough to save it.

The show never even touched the Nielsen Top 10 Streaming charts. And since Amazon doesn’t share viewership numbers, we can only assume the stats weren’t brag-worthy.

Between the mid-reviews, tough streaming competition, and the fact that no one was talking about it, this cancellation was inevitable.

---

Background, plot and cast

Originally cooked up for IMDb TV (aka Freevee) in 2021, it finally got the green light from Prime Video in 2023.

The show was backed by some heavy hitters—Sony Pictures Television, Amazon Studios, and Original Film—with Sara Goodman and Phoebe Fisher running the show.

Fun fact: Neal H. Moritz and Roger Kumble, who worked on the OG 1999 movie, were also involved.

As far as the plot was concerned, it revolved around rich, messy college kids playing power games at Manchester College, a bougie university near D.C.

The main characters, step-siblings Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess), were obsessed with maintaining their social dominance.

After a hazing scandal put Greek Life at risk, they went full villain mode—manipulating, scheming, and even seducing the Vice President’s daughter to keep their influence intact.

The cast also featured Myra Molloy, Kh Clarke, Lena Johnson, Sara Silva, Sean Patrick Thomas, and John Harlan Kim.

---

Previous attempts and legacy

This isn’t the first time someone tried (and failed) to bring the story to TV.

Back in 2016, NBC shot a sequel pilot with Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising her iconic role—but it never made it past that stage.

Before that, Fox took a swing at a prequel series, but that got scrapped too. The few episodes that did exist were stitched together into the straight-to-video gem Cruel Intentions 2 in 2001.

Meanwhile, the OG 1999 film is untouchable.

Directed by Roger Kumble and starring Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair, it was a dark, twisted, and totally iconic take on high school life in NYC.

Hence, maybe Cruel Intentions should just stay in the ‘90s where it thrived.