Prime Video's 10-Part Period Drama About Zelda & F. Scott Fitzgerald Deserved Another Season

Published Aug 30, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT

Liz Hersey is an Editor and Critic for ScreenRant's TV team, editing, reviewing, writing, and creating content about the iconic shows you love to watch. She began her editing career at ScreenRant in 2019, shortly after joining the site as a Writer that same year.

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Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald remain one of the most iconic literary couples of all time, and a 2015 Prime Video series had only just started its depiction of their tumultuous relationship before it was canceled after one season. Period shows can be hit-or-miss, and the genre's offerings on Prime Video are no exception — the multi-Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ran for five seasons while My Lady Jane was canceled after just one.

Sadly, this was also the fate of Z: The Beginning of Everything. Based on the 2013 book Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler, Z: The Beginning of Everything stars Christina Ricci and David Hoflin as the famous couple. The first season covers Zelda meeting Scott in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, their whirlwind courtship, and the early years of their marriage, filled with tension over her heavy spending and his heavier drinking.

Critics were lukewarm about Z: The Beginning of Everything, awarding the series 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Z's 83% Popcornmeter points to an enthusiastic audience, making it all the more disappointing that Z: The Beginning of Everything ​​​​​​only managed to tell exactly that.

Z: The Beginning Of Everything Covered Literally Just The Beginning Of Zelda & F. Scott Fitzgerald's Marriage

Those who read the book or know the basics of the Fitzgeralds' relationship know that the show had a lot more ground to cover. Adapting roughly one-third of Fowler's novel, Z: The Beginning of Everything ended in 1921, with Zelda discovering she's pregnant after she and Scott leave New York to return to Alabama and fix their strained marriage.

Another season would have at least gotten the couple to Paris, where they famously lived amongst the Lost Generation of 1920s artists, including Ernest Hemingway, with whom Zelda had a well-documented, notorious feud — which was a major storyline in the book. Z: The Beginning of Everything season 2 also likely would have covered the Fitzgeralds' biggest creative achievements, namely Scott writing his magnum opus, The Great Gatsby, and Zelda penning her own novel, Save Me the Waltz.

Between Zelda's mental health struggles and Scott's alcohol addiction, the ending of the Fitzgeralds' romance was one of tragedy. It would have been a tough subject for the Prime Video series to cover, so perhaps it's best that it didn't, but there was certainly more story to tell than what we got in season 1 of Z: The Beginning of Everything.

Why Prime Video Canceled Z After 1 Season (Despite Renewing It For Season 2)

Out of all of Prime Video's most disappointing TV show cancelations, Z: The Beginning of Everything's stings the most because it had already been greenlit for season 2. The confirmation came exactly four months after season 1's premiere, and that lengthy wait made the renewal a pleasant surprise. Alas, it did not come to fruition.

While pre-production on Z: The Beginning of Everything season 2 was well underway, with Amazon already having spent $7 million on the project, it was scrapped due to a cost-saving measure in which the company was reducing its spending on original series. Given that Z: The Beginning of Everything was neither a viewership smash nor a critical darling, it makes sense that it was on the chopping block.

Z: The Beginning of Everything is still available to stream on Prime Video.

Period drama series are always a risky endeavor, as they're incredibly expensive to produce and often don't garner a large audience like fantasy or sci-fi series based on popular IP often do. Netflix even canceled the 1970s- and '80s-set Mindhunter for similar reasons, despite the David Fincher crime thriller being one of the streaming giant's most acclaimed shows of all time. While Z: The Beginning of Everything can't claim as much, it still deserved better than what it got.