Hulu kills How To Die Alone

Natasha Rothwell's How To Die Alone has been canceled after one season, Variety reports. The writer-performer's dramedy was produced by Onyx Collective, a content brand owned by Disney, and aired on Hulu. A source told Variety that the cancellation came down to viewership not being strong enough to warrant renewal. But Rothwell herself expressed surprise and dismay over the show getting cut short just a few months after the premiere, stating her intention to shop the show elsewhere. 

How To Die Alone was originally given a series order in 2022 and debuted on Hulu in September 2024. Rothwell, a former Saturday Night Live writer and Insecure scene stealer, starred as Mel, an airline employee with a fear of flying. When Mel has a near-death experience on her 35th birthday, she's inspired to love more fearlessly and open herself up to what life has to offer. In her B review of the show, The A.V. Club's Saloni Gajjar described it as "a surprisingly feel-good series about a sympathetic, flawed, and funny adult."

"I am shocked, heartbroken and frankly, baffled that Onyx has decided not to move forward with a second season of How To Die Alone. This is a tough reality to accept because the show is an undeniable critical, creative and award-winning success. This show took me eight years to bring to life, and if there’s one thing I've learned in that time, it’s resilience. I’m not giving up. My team and I are committed to finding How To Die Alone a new home because stories like this matter," Rothwell wrote in her statement (via Variety). "Now more than ever, television that amplifies previously unheard voices, and that prioritizes hiring and casting decisions that accurately reflect the diversity of the world, is essential. Representation isn’t just about visibility — it’s about ensuring that our stories, our existence and our cultural contributions are not erased. As Maya Angelou so wisely said, 'You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.'" She concluded her statement, "We are rising. And we are not done."

Speaking with The A.V. Club in September, Rothwell (who will next be seen reprising her role as Belinda in The White Lotus' third season) said she had to "fight" for some of the more emotional scenes to remain in the series because "Hollywood does try to put you in a box. They want you to be one thing, and it was important for me to see Mel go through the highs and lows and realize they exist together." 

"[It] was hard because there's so much that you want to say, and I didn’t want to let this opportunity slip away. And I say that very pointedly because there may not be a season two. I hope we get four seasons of the show," she said, adding that she had "ideas" for future plots. "I work with my co-showrunner, Vera Santamaria. We [thought of] four seasons of the show before we even got the green light for season one because I didn’t want to go into this and not have a sense of where it was headed. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to tell the story. It’s exciting to have this rich world and the characters because there’s so much to pull from."