Prime Video has cancelled Ride or Die after one season — Octavia Spencer: ‘projects like this shouldn’t be the exception’
Paramount Television Studios is shopping the show elsewhere after Prime Video passed on a second season.
Well, it's official: Ride or Die isn’t coming back for a second round on Prime Video. The news dropped recently, and it seems fans aren’t the only ones a bit gutted about it—Octavia Spencer, who not only starred alongside Hannah Waddingham but also served as an executive producer, has now spoken out about the sudden cancellation.
Ride or Die's home on Prime Video is no more—Paramount Television Studios is now shopping the show elsewhere.
Spencer addressed the whole thing on her Instagram, posting alongside a headline about the show’s demise. She didn’t quite launch into a rant, but she did get candid about what the series meant to her and everyone who worked on it over the past three years. Before we get into her comments, here’s the gist: Paramount Television Studios and Skydance backed the whole project, but Prime Video are the ones who've pulled the plug. At the moment, the producers are trying to find a new buyer—so technically, hope isn’t completely dead. Realistically, though? You know how these things usually go.
Read more: 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 927,000 views in two days — and Prime Video cancelled it anyway
Octavia Spencer Breaks Her Silence
Spencer didn’t just issue a generic 'thanks to the fans' post—she actually named the main people behind the show, including its creator Tessa Coates and executive producers Matt Thunnell, Dana Goldberg, and Barbara Muschietti. It was very much a credits roll, but without the awkwardly small print.
And here's how she summed up her feelings in her own words from Instagram:
Projects like this shouldn’t be the exception, they should be rule! For all the women out there who felt seen, laughed out loud, lived out loud with Debbie and Judith, thank you. This was a fun one!
Given the pairing of Spencer and Waddingham, that sentiment probably resonates with a fair few viewers who turned up for the mishmash of buddy comedy and slick spy action. Spencer’s character Debbie and Waddingham’s Judith ended up on quite a wild ride—ironic now, considering the show itself has hit a wall after only one season.
What Actually Was Ride or Die?
Plot-wise, Ride or Die is your classic 'best mates, double life' escapade, only one of them’s an international assassin in hiding. Spencer played Debbie Claybourne, an American woman married to a British MP, thinking her mate Judith (Waddingham) works a normal 9-to-5. Surprise—Judith’s job actually involves a lot more gunfire than paperwork. Naturally, things spiral when an assignment goes sideways, and the whole show quickly pivots into a high-speed chase across Europe, dodging MI5, contract killers, and assorted unsavoury characters. It’s a brisk, comic spin on the James Bond formula, except with two middle-aged women getting all the best lines and the best weapons.
- The cast: Octavia Spencer (Debbie), Hannah Waddingham (Judith), with Tessa Coates creating and executive producing alongside Matt Thunnell, Dana Goldberg, and Barbara Muschietti.
- Genre: Action-comedy with proper spy antics and a bit of buddy road trip energy thrown in.
- Platform: Originally on Prime Video, but technically still streamable—unless it’s one of those shows that disappears once a deal collapses. For now, you can still watch the first series.
Prime Video’s decision to cancel it came out without much warning, and the fact that Spencer herself was one of the executives suggests this wasn’t just a shrugged-off throwaway. For what it’s worth, the creative team is now trying to flog the show to other networks or streamers, but as ever, it’s a tough old world out there for an orphaned series.