One of the Most Visually Insane Sci-Fi Shows of the Last Decade Just Vanished From HBO Max

Ridley Scott knows sci-fi, and in the 2020 HBO series, it was clear he hadn’t lost his touch. The Alien filmmaker directed the first two episodes of Raised by Wolves and stayed on as an executive producer. Tragically, the series was canceled after two seasons and was included in HBO’s culling that also removed Westworld from streaming. Unlike much of the programming on HBO, Raised by Wolves was ahead of its time but was cut down cruelly by the Warner-Discovery merger.

The series follows two androids, called Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), who escape Earth before its destruction far into the future. The planet was in crisis because of a bloody conflict between atheists and a religious sect known as the Mithraic. Mother and Father take 12 human embryos with them with the intent of raising them in the ways of atheism. Because only one of the children survived, however, the androids became concerned that they could not further the human race as intended. The remaining child, Campion (Winta McGrath), signals a Mithraic ship only for Mother to destroy it and kidnap five of the children to raise with her human child.

Among the Mithraics is Marcus (Travis Fimmel), who was actually an atheist who infiltrated the order. However, when he starts receiving visions, he becomes a true believer and forsakes his former ways. What commences is only a mirror of what happened on Earth. The religious faction and androids programmed with atheistic ideals are once again at war in a series that confronts the concept of organized religion.

‘Raised by Wolves’ Should Have Survived in a Post ‘Dune’ World

Like many series released after the pandemic, Raised by Wolves was the product of bad timing. Content on streaming was becoming more prevalent, and the series got lost in the shuffle. This was tragic as Season 2 of the series was critically acclaimed and a vision to watch. More than anything, it was bizarre in the best way possible and could have fit well into the scope of sci-fi following the release of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune in 2021.

Villeneuve introduced viewers to opening their minds to stranger concepts, and had Raised by Wolves been released after the premiere of the film, it likely would have been embraced. Both narratives consider the consequences of fanatical worship. In Raised by Wolves, it is the Mithraics, and in Dune, it is the Bene Gesserit, which eventually turn into the Fremen’s worship of the Lisan al Gaib. Paul Atredies (Timothée Chalamet) becomes a prophet not because he is one, but because he knows how to weaponize the power of belief. Similarly, Marcus takes on a similar role as a religious leader, seeing strange visions that he takes to mean are divine.

Raised by Wolves was canceled abruptly, but that wasn’t the end of the story. HBO also scrubbed the series from the platform, making it impossible to look for. The show was another casualty in the streaming wars, where the lack of physical media has made it far too easy to erase works of art irrevocably. The only way to watch it now is to purchase the series on disc, which HBO thankfully released, so it was not lost completely.