Prime Video's The Peripheral Deserved At Least 2 More Seasons

Published Aug 4, 2026, 9:32 PM EDT

Famously parodied in The Simpsons, Westworld was the Jurassic Park author’s other, lesser-known story about a theme park reliant on sci-fi technology where disaster strikes when the attractions start attacking the attendees. While the original 1973 movie was a cautionary tale and siege thriller about evading killer androids, 2016’s Westworld was a much, much more complex and morally ambiguous time-shifting story of the Wild West-themed amusement park.

The dual timelines of Westworld focused on both the eponymous park, with its robot ‘hosts’ who were subjected to all manner of horrific mistreatment by patrons, and the real world of the future, wherein the AI Rehoboam reigned supreme. Like the upcoming Blade Runner 2099, Westworld engaged with questions of sentience and humanity in the world of robotics and AI. Prime Video’s underrated The Peripheral could have been a perfect companion piece for the show, but it was sadly canceled after only one season.

The Peripheral Was An Ideal Replacement For HBO’s Westworld Reboot

Many viewers bemoan the fact that Westworld never had a chance to properly tie up the loose ends of its knotty, morally complex plot when its four-season run was cut short due to dwindling viewership. However, The Peripheral’s fate was even worse, as the William Gibson adaptation ended just as its story was starting to fulfill its promise. Starring Chloë Grace Moretz as the hacker and gamer Flynn Fisher, The Peripheral takes place in the near future of 2032.

Based on the Gibson novel of the same name from 2014, The Peripheral’s story starts with Fisher testing a VR game only to stumble upon a real-life murder that hasn’t happened yet. In a plot that builds on Gibson’s earlier novel Neuromancer, Fisher soon realizes the VR system actually allows her to control a remote robotic body 70 years into the future, in post-apocalyptic 2099 London.

The story that ensues is a dense, complicated conspiracy thriller wherein Flynn must try to unravel the truth about the killing from the future to save her and her brother’s lives in the present. Witnessing the crime in 2099 makes Fisher a target in 2032, and it is not long before she must make alliances with various shady underground figures to ensure her safety and survival.

Apple TV Has The Perfect Substitute For The Peripheral Coming In 2027

Marrying the cyberpunk complexity of the Blade Runner movies with a satisfying murder mystery, The Peripheral recreated Westworld’s blend of cerebral sci-fi and crowd-pleasing action to a tee. The show would have been a perfect substitute for the canceled HBO series if Prime Video had seen fit to renew the series for another season or two.

However, despite boasting a stellar supporting cast including Jack Reynor, T’Nia Miller, Charlotte Riley, and Katie Leung, The Peripheral was canceled after only one eight-episode season in 2023. Since Fallout’s Jonathan Nolan was a producer of both The Peripheral and Westworld, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two shows shared a similarly complex but approachable attitude toward sci-fi lore.

Hopefully, Apple TV’s upcoming Neuromancer adaptation will prove to be a fitting replacement for the short-lived Prime Video show when the long-awaited adaptation of Gibson’s iconic 1984 novel arrives in 2027. Sadly, it is too late for The Peripheral to become Westworld’s replacement.