There are many planned movies and shows in development that are getting pulled from release thanks to Warner Bros. Discovery, and the latest title to add to that list is the animated series Little Ellen. After premiering its prior two seasons on HBO Max, the show was set to have its third season premiere on the streaming platform in June before it had been indefinitely delayed. Per Deadline, it's now been revealed that the show has been canceled.
Season 3 had already been produced and completed and now presumably won't be released at all. As is the case with Batgirl and other canceled projects, this is believed to have been done for tax reasons. If the company does not finish certain productions, they'll be able to write off the costs as part of a strategy to recoup as much of that spent money as possible. It has also been reported that HBO Max will shift away from family-friendly and kids programming as part of their new strategy when Gordita Chronicles was recently axed after one season.
Little Ellen presents an animated take on the childhood of Ellen DeGeneres, and the third season would have followed her as a seven-year-old. The show was ordered to series in 2019 as one of three projects from DeGeneres, the others being Ellen's Home Design Challenge and First Dates Hotel. The series is produced by Ellen Digital Ventures and Warner Bros. Animation and features the voices of Laurel Emory, Johanna Colon, JeCobi Swain, and June Squibb.
Ellen DeGeneres Wrapped Up Her Talk Show
Of course, DeGeneres is best known for hosting her long-running daytime talk show which just wrapped up earlier this year after 19 seasons. On her final episode, she thanked her fans for their support, reflecting on how she had her doubters about her success two decades ago that wouldn't have predicted that Ellen would have done so well.
“Welcome to our very last show," DeGeneres said on the program. "I walked out here 19 years ago and I said this is the start of a relationship. And today is not the end of a relationship, it’s more of a little break. You can see other talk shows now. I may see another audience once in a while. Twenty years ago when we tried to sell this show no one thought this would work, not because it was a different kind of show. It was because I was different. Very few stations wanted to buy the show and here we are 20 years later, celebrating this amazing journey together.”
DeGeneres added, "What a beautiful, beautiful journey that we have been together. If this show has made you smile, if it has lifted you up when you’re in a period of some type of pain, some type of sadness, anything you are going through, then I have done my job. Because of this platform we have been able to change people’s lives. This show has forever changed my life.”
Chances are DeGeneres will be back on the small screen soon enough, even with some of her shows recently coming to an end.