The bell has officially rung for the Duffy Wrestling League. After just wrapping up its second season on Starz earlier this month, Variety exclusively reported that the hit wrestling drama Heels has been canceled at the network. Following a small-town independent wrestling promotion trying to take it to the next level professionally, the series starred Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig as brothers Jack and Ace Spade. It’s one of four series Starz scrapped today, including Blindspotting, Run the World, and The Venery of Samantha Bird which had yet to air its first season.
Heels primarily followed the rivalry between the two brothers as they struggled to keep their family business afloat amid their own personal strife. Ace spent the majority of Season 1 trying to get out of his brother’s shadow as Jack does all he can to make the DWL the best it can be. Their arcs within the ring as faces, the heroes, and heels, the villains, parallel their own personal lives as reality and fiction blend together and their personal demons and secrets are revealed. Season 2 follows up by showing the fallout from the finale as the DWL soars in popularity, but not without Ace departing altogether. As Jack navigates the new ventures ahead of him, he also wrestles with the strained relationship with his brother and his wife outside the ring.
Amell and Ludwig were joined in the series by a talented cast that included Chris Bauer, Mary McCormack, Kelli Berglund, Allen Maldonado, Trey Tucker, Robby Ramos, Alice Barrett Mitchell, Roxton Garcia, David James Elliott, and Joel Murray. The series also added a bit of real-life wrestling cred to its small-town team with CM Punk in a recurring role as Ricky Rabies and AJ Mendez in Season 2 as Elle Dorado. Series showrunner Mike O’Malley also got in on the fun as a rival wrestling promoter to the DWL.
Who Else Was Behind ‘Heels’?
At the very top of Heels was Emmy-winning creator Michael Waldron whose career has taken off in recent years as the writer behind both Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Ludwig told Collider‘s Christina Raddish in an interview for Season 2 that the team was very tight-knit from the beginning, touting the show’s goal of exploring wrestling, family, and chasing dreams:
“Part of what always drew me to the show, and I think Stephen [Amell] agrees with this, is that I always felt that it wasn’t just a wrestling show. Wrestling is such an incredible world to explore, but underneath it all, it’s about identity and it’s about people, and flawed people at that. As soon as we got to set, especially because a lot of us hadn’t experienced pro wrestling in its fullest, the Stephen had at times, we bonded so quickly over the fact that we were all learning this new, incredible sport together and getting our asses kicked in the process. That brought us really close together. I think the goal, from the beginning, was that it was that it was about a family was a promotion and the big dreams that came with it.”
Heels is now streaming in its entirety on Hulu or Amazon Prime with a Starz add-on.
via Collider