Before Dune, Zendaya Starred in This Canceled Netflix Sci-Fi Series

Created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, the ambitious 2016 streaming drama was canceled after two seasons, leaving a massive narrative cliffhanger unresolved.

The Bottom Line

• The Project: Zendaya featured in Netflix’s genre-bending 2016 series The OA, created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij.
• The Industry Context: According to reporting by Comic Book Resources (CBR), the show’s premature end highlights an era where algorithm-driven streaming models favor safer bets over complex, auteur-led storytelling.

An Ambitious Swing in the Golden Age of Streaming

Back in 2016, Netflix was aggressively redefining television. That monumental year saw the premiere of Stranger Things, establishing a template for streaming dominance. Yet, occupying that exact same speculative fiction space was The OA, a far denser and more challenging piece of television that blended science, religion, and fantasy.

Brit Marling starred as Prairie Johnson, leading a stellar ensemble cast that included Jason Isaacs, Emory Cohen, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Zendaya. But unlike its supernatural counterpart, The OA leaned into heavier, riskier narrative territory—incorporating real-world traumas like a school shooting directly into its multi-dimensional plot. It was a creative gamble that critics praised, securing an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it ultimately tested the boundaries of mainstream streaming audiences.

When Algorithms Outpaced Auteur Visions

As streaming services matured over the last decade, the economic realities of prestige television shifted dramatically. According to analysis from CBR, The OA became too costly to produce relative to the specific viewership numbers required by the platform to sustain it.

Here is the kicker: that cancellation serves as a historical marker for how major platforms changed. While Netflix still collaborates with high-profile auteurs like Guillermo del Toro and David Fincher, the daily operational model has pivoted firmly toward algorithm-driven content designed to mitigate subscriber churn.

Series Title	Platform	Premiere Year	Seasons Produced	Rotten Tomatoes Score
The OA	Netflix	2016	2	84%
Stranger Things	Netflix	2016	5 (Final)	91%

The Evolving Landscape of Hard Sci-Fi on Streaming

But the industry implications stretch far beyond a single fan-favorite fanbase. As legacy media companies consolidate—with Netflix maintaining a commanding market share in the ongoing Streaming Wars—expensive, high-concept hard sci-fi faces an increasingly difficult path to greenlight.

Platforms like Apple TV+ have occasionally stepped into that narrative vacuum with ambitious genre titles like Severance and Foundation, yet the broader financial ecosystem remains cautious.

Looking Back at Zendaya’s Formative Television Roots

For Zendaya, The OA represents a fascinating stepping stone in an expertly managed career. Long before she anchored massive cinematic tentpoles, her willingness to take a supporting, ensemble-driven role in an experimental indie-style streaming project highlighted an early appetite for daring material. While the series remains frozen in time with its unresolved mythology, it stands as a reminder of what television looked like when streaming platforms were willing to finance pure creative risks.

Photo: cbr.com

Drop a comment below: Did you watch The OA when it first premiered, and do you think modern streaming services will ever return to funding such high-risk genre experiments?