Taika Waititi's TIME BANDITS Canceled After One Season at Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has canceled its Time Bandits series after only one season, and I’m not surprised. The series, which was created by Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, and Iain Morris, was a dud.

The series was based on Terry Gilliam’s 1981 sci-fi fantasy adventure classic, which was one of my favorite films as a kid. This series just didn’t come near to capturing the magic or spirit of that original film. It makes me wonder if any of the creators were actually fans of the original movie,

Morris previously talked about the movie, saying, “I think Time Bandits is actually almost the lost classic. You mention it to a lot of people and they’ve never heard of it, but you meet other people and it’s their favorite film.

“But they are quite rare. So if you’re bringing these brilliant ideas that people have and these brilliant worlds, and expanding and changing and introducing them to a new audience, I think it’s great. Some of the best songs ever made are cover versions.”

And this creative team ruined those “brilliant ideas,” and the series is most definitely not a good cover version of the original film. Clement, Morris and Waititi wrote and directed select episodes of Time Bandits Season 1.

Lisa Kudrow stars in the series and follows a group of thieves and their newest recruit, an 11-year-old boy named Kevin (Kal-El Tuck), hopping across time and space to plunder riches.

The cast also included Tadhg Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Charlyne Yi, Rune Temte, Rachel House, Kiera Thompson, James Dryden, Felicity Ward, Francesca Mills and Imaan Hadchiti.

It’s a shame that this is where the show ended up. A Time Bandits show could’ve and should’ve been incredibly awesome! There was not reason why this show couldn’t have been brilliant, but this creative team clearly wasn’t the right fit for the material.