Netflix boss denies Boots was cancelled due to ‘woke garbage’ backlash
Netflix boss Ted Sarandos has said Boots was ‘absolutely not’ cancelled due to MAGA backlash. (Getty)
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has rebuked claims that queer military drama Boots was axed because it was deemed “woke garbage” by The Pentagon.
Despite finding a fairly large fandom, Boots was axed in December and fan hopes of a second season were dashed.
Speaking to Variety at the DGA Awards earlier this week, Sarandos denied that the show got the chop due to the response from US officials.
“Absolutely not,” he said when grilled on whether The Pentagon’s remarks had anything to do with its cancellation.
“These are all business decisions based on audience relative to the cost of the show. do the people who push play watch it ‘til the end? Do they give it a couple thumbs up? Does it keep growing? All those things. That decision is made every day,” he explained.
Sarandos went on to say that he was “a fan” of Boots and urged that any decision to cancel a show is “heartbreaking” for the Netflix team.
“The beauty of why people get upset when you cancel a show is ‘cos they love them. That’s the best part of our business, is that people really love the product. It’s heartbreaking to cancel any show ever, particularly a show that Norman Lear brought to me,” he said.
Boots was the final project of famed American TV producer Norman Lear, who died in 2023 aged 101.
Following its release back in October, Boots became a sleeper streaming hit for Netflix, creeping up the platform’s top 10 chart. It starred 13 Reasons Why actor Miles Heizer as Cameron Cope, a closeted queer teen who signs up to a military corps boot camp to escape his stifling home life.
Days after the show dropped on Netflix, The Pentagon, which houses the United States’ Department of Defence, said that the show had an “ideological agenda”.
The Pentagon’s press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement that the US military “doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight” and that Netflix was feeding “woke garbage to their audience and children”.
In reality, the show was based on Greg Cope White’s memoir The Pink Marine: One Boy’s Journey Through Bootcamp To Manhood about his real-life experience of being in a US military boot camp in the 1990s, during the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ era, which banned military personnel from disclosing if they identified as LGBTQ+. The show is also set in the 1990s.
Responding to Variety’s interview, Cope White wrote on Instagram: “Thank you for caring about our show and asking him.”
After news of the show’s cancellation broke, several of its cast members spoke of their disappointment about its early end.
“Well, I’m sad to report that Boots isn’t being renewed for a second season. I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming love and support they gave this show. It truly shattered my expectations, and I couldn’t be more grateful,” Heizer wrote on Instagram.
“Thank you to the LGBTQ community that came before me who fought for a world where a show like this could get made,” he continued.
“I grew up so afraid of what being gay would mean for my life. So to be on the other side of that, feeling so uplifted and supported, is still insane to me. Yes, I’m pretty disappointed we won’t be returning. But the friends I made and being called woke garbage by the pentagon are things I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
Boots is streaming now on Netflix.
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