‘Tokyo Vice’ Canceled at Max

Ansel Elgort in ‘Tokyo Vice.’

Courtesy of Max

Tokyo Vice’s days on Max have come to a conclusion.

During a panel at the Produced By conference Saturday in Los Angeles, producers confirmed that the recently concluded second season will be the show’s last on the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed platform.

Originally pitched as a two-season show with the events of the series having ended with its April 4 finale, fittingly titled “Endgame,” star Ansel Elgort also only signed on for two seasons of the series.

“Over the last five years, Max has made sure we got to tell our story. They have supported us through thick and thin. Not only did they give us these two seasons, they said yes when we asked to end season one with a series of cliffhangers, and they said yes when we asked for two extra episodes so we could land the plane in the way [creator] J.T. [Rogers] had always envisioned,” Rogers and director Alan Poul said in a joint statement. “We’re grateful not only to Max but to our partners Fifth Season, who sold the show around the world and made it a global success story. They were in the trenches with us always, guaranteeing that we could make the show we wanted to make. The response from both the press and from fans, in particular to season two, has been overwhelming. It’s been thrilling to find out how deeply viewers have engaged with our characters and to hear how they are clamoring for more. We know there is more story to tell. Of course, we’ll see what the future holds, but we are indeed grateful to have been able to share this story on Max until now.”

Developed by Max’s original executive regime of Bob Greenblatt, Kevin Reilly and Sarah Aburey, the series was picked up straight to series in mid-2019 and originally earmarked to be part of Max when it launched in 2020. Those plans, like so many others, went out the window after the pandemic shut down production across the globe. The series launched in April 2022 to positive reviews. The show has an 89 percent average among critics and a 92 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Tokyo Vice was based on the nonfiction book by Jake Adelstein, who detailed his account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat and his daily descent into the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo.

“From Tokyo Vice’s richly written material to the gorgeously composed shots to the lived-in performances, the care and creativity of this enormously talented cast and crew shines in every frame of the show. We thank J.T., Alan, Ansel, Ken [Watanabe], Fifth Season, and [Tokyo TV station] Wowow for their partnership on this wholly unique modern noir thriller.”

As Rogers alluded to in his statement, he had been optimistic about getting a third season of the drama and told THR in April after the season two finale that he had “a whole story ready to go.” 

Tokyo Vice is the latest series to get the ax at Max as streamers and networks alike trim their rosters in a bid to right-size their slates in an era of belt-tightening that followed the end of the Peak TV phenomenon. Max has also canceled The Girls on the Bus, Rap Shit, Julia and Our Flag Means Death, among others.