The Season 1 finale of Shantaram will now be its series finale: Apple TV+ has canceled the Charlie Hunnam drama.
The news of Shantaram’s demise hit Deadline on Thursday, December 15, the day before the season finale started streaming.
Based on the bestselling 2003 novel of the same name by Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram starred Hunnam as Lin Ford, an escaped convict who starts working as a medical for the poor and neglected in 1980s Bombay and “finds unexpected love, connection, and courage on the long road to redemption.”
That road brings Lin into contact with an “enigmatic and intriguing” woman named Karla, played by Antonia Desplat. “[He’s on a] collision course between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of gold,” Hunnam told TV Insider in October. “With Karla, it’s non-reciprocated initially, but a dramatic, wonderfully romantic relationship blossoms. He gets tempted by the Bombay underworld.”
As Deadline reports, the series — which also starred Shubham Saraf and Alexander Siddig — filmed two episodes before pausing for COVID-19 in February 2020 and didn’t resume production until May 2021.
“It was incredibly difficult,” Hunnam told TV Insider. “We shot the pilot in India and Australia before COVID, and then, because of [the Delta variant], we couldn’t go back to India [and had to reshoot]. In the midst of it all, I got a mosquito bite and dengue fever. Then I got an ear infection in both ears and conjunctivitis. I’m hopeful that if the show gains traction and we do a second season, we’ll have an easier time!”
Shantaram was developed by executive producer Eric Warren Singer and showrunner/EP Steve Lightfoot. Andrea Barron, Nicole Clemens, Steve Golin, Justin Kurzel, and Bharat Nalluri also served as EPs. Paramount Television Studios and Anonymous Content’s AC Studios produced the series.
