‘Warrior Nun’ will return as a film trilogy, executive producer Dean English announces

“In this life or the next,” showrunner Simon Barry tweeted the day after Netflix canceled “Warrior Nun” last December.

Welcome to the afterlife.

“Warrior Nun,” an adaptation of the comic series “Warrior Nun Areala,” follows Ava Silva (Alba Baptista), a quadriplegic orphan who wakes from the dead with superpowers that land her in an ancient order of demon-hunting nuns. The series premiered in 2020, and Season 2 of the show earned a 100% critics score and a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — the highest ever for a Netflix original at that time.

But Netflix unceremoniously canceled the show a month after the Season 2 debut. Then in late June, Barry announced that the YA fantasy drama series was being revived, though he didn’t reveal where the series was picked up. Four days later, he posted a link to WarriorNunSaved.com, which had a cryptic countdown, ending Aug. 15.

Now, the countdown is over, and “Warrior Nun” executive producer Dean English has announced in a statement on the site that the series will return as a trilogy of feature films. Because of the ongoing Hollywood strikes, English said he could not provide a release date.

However, he said that the film trilogy may lead to a “Warrior Nun” cinematic universe, which “could expand to films and TV series following characters that we already know.” Fans can sign up for a “Halo Bearer” email hotline to receive future updates, English said.

“You guys have made me very very proud through all your hard work and inspired me all the time to keep going,” English told fans.

In a Twitter post last November, Barry said Netflix didn’t spend any money promoting the series, but that it still managed to become the third most-watched series globally the first week the season was on the platform.

The series’ fan base has not wavered in its devotion. When news of the show’s cancellation went public, fans flocked to the internet to save it, leading campaigns on sites like Twitter and Change.org. Such fan-led campaigns aren’t always successful; for example, “I Am Not Okay With This” and “First Kill” — two other YA shows featuring queer women leads — were also canceled by Netflix and unable to be revived.

But the “Warrior Nun” fan base is “next level,” Barry has said. One fan on Twitter even made a short documentary about it.

“I’ve never seen such an uprising as I have with the Warrior Nun fandom,” said Ruby, a fan in the documentary. Another fan named Maia said, “Warrior Nun is a collection of different stories that need to be told.”

Fans have said they identify with the lead character Ava, who struggles to heal from traumatic religious experiences, and Beatrice (Kristina Tonteri-Young), who fears her queer identity will cause others to see her differently.

When you get a show like that, Maia said, “you have to fight to keep it.”