A fantasy television show aired its final episode nine years ago this month, and while the network promised fans a spinoff, nothing has happened with the property since it signed off. There have been some great fantasy television shows over the years, but often some of the best end up forgotten thanks to networks not having faith in their stories. It seems that people have fond memories of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but fewer people talk about the often superior storytelling from its spinoff, Angel. Looking back on television history, it is easy to see the fantasy landscape littered with brilliant shows that almost no one even knows about anymore, from the X-Files spinoff Millennium to the criminally underrated and underappreciated Sam Raimi-produced fantasy horror series American Gothic.
This also happened to the fantasy series Grimm, which was often overshadowed by the massive hit series Once Upon a Time. While ABC pushed Once Upon a Time to the moon, mostly thanks to its romantic subplots and the more mainstream-friendly storylines, NBC pushed Grimm into a Friday night death slot and rarely gave it any attention, even as it built up a loyal fanbase. When NBC cancelled Grimm, the show was supposed to get a spinoff that never happened, and it still deserves it to this day.
Grimm Still Needs The Spinoff Series Fans So Desperately Deserve
Image Courtesy of NBC
When looking at how underappreciated and underrated Grimm is, it is almost hard to believe that the NBC urban fantasy series put out six seasons and 123 episodes before NBC pulled the plug. What made the series stand out was that it was a police procedural series, but set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales. That was perfect for fans of urban fantasy, but it never hit on as large a level as Once Upon a Time’s more mainstream storylines. Both series debuted in 2011, and Once Upon a Time lasted one more season than Grimm.
Grimm followed Detective Nicholas “Nick” Burkhardt (David Giuntoli), a descendant from a line of hunters (the Grimms) who fight supernatural forces, and his partner, a human cop named Hank Griggin (Russell Hornsby). It was a similar stunt as Supernatural, but with two cops in the Pacific Northwest fighting monsters, rather than two brothers traveling around America doing the same. When NBC canceled Grimm, NBC announced that a spinoff series was coming. The last episode of Grimm aired on March 31, 2017.
However, this series never arrived, and that is tragic for fans of the franchise. The spinoff was supposed to focus on a different descendant of the Grimms, possibly Theresa Rubel (Jacqueline Toboni), an orphaned Grimm who joined the series in Season 3. This was set up in the Season 5 finale, where the series ended with the revelation that she is a third cousin to Nick and another possible Hunter. The series would then keep building on the mythology started in Grimm. After three years, NBC announced the spinoff was dead. There have also been rumors of a Peacock movie that would reboot the Grimm franchise, but little is known about that.
Things like this are normal in Hollywood, but it is often frustrating for fans, especially after waiting nine years and not getting anywhere closer to a revival. The urban fantasy storylines have always been popular, although Grimm never got the same promotion as something like Supernatural. It has been adapted to comic books and even novels, but what fans really need is this spinoff series, which requires NBC or Peacock to show faith in the property, which it rarely did when Grimm was on TV.
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