Last week, Nick Bythrow, hosted AN OCS Newsletter article on his blog Frayed Branches. “A Difficult Update: The Future of the Warrior Nun Movie Trilogy” outlined how the promised Warrior Nun trilogy is over for now, due to accusations of fraud by the financial backer.

Now nick has graciously gifted us with his inspiring story of what warrior nun means to him and ask you to submit your own story on how the show and fandom have impacted and/or changed your life.

In September 2024, film production company Productivity Media was faced with a major financial probe due to allegations of mismanaged funds. This investigation began with CEO William Santor being suspended, and the company being put under the microscope through an independent audit. Productivity Media is best known to many for financing the 2023 boxing drama Day of the Fight, its biggest film to date. But, to us, we know it as the production company that was supposed to usher in a trilogy of Warrior Nun movies.

Unfortunately, the story of saving Warrior Nun has been filled with challenges, each more difficult than the last. I’ll never forget the elation of learning the show had been “saved,” according to Netflix series showrunner Simon Barry, with a trilogy of movies announced. Nor will I forget the wave of fear that washed over the fandom as it was revealed Barry and many others behind-the-scenes would not, in fact, be returning for the supposed continuation. All of these are, regrettably, memories of a time that has long since passed. Because now we know the truth: Our Warrior Nun was never going to come back.

In October 2024, just a few short weeks after Productivity Media’s audit was reported, executive producer Dean English addressed the future of Warrior Nun’s movie trilogy. It was slightly better news than before, even if it was tinged with worry. He confirmed Santor’s suspension from the company had dealt “a significant blow,” though remained hopeful for the franchise’s future. But that future has since been a point of contention, ever since the trilogy was revealed not to be a continuation of the Netflix series.

Instead, it’s been heavily indicated the upcoming Warrior Nun films will be directly adapting Ben Dunn’s comic Warrior Nun Areala. While the Netflix series was technically an adaptation of its own, it forged a unique path, heading in an alternate direction thanks to new characters like Ava, her romantic relationship with Beatrice, and plenty of thematic differences between the two as well. The Netflix series is, in all but name, its own original story. This was the story that fans had been fighting for. And now, it seems that story is no longer coming to pass. But even the movies are in jeopardy, both because of Productivity Media’s financial audit, and also because of the tragic circumstances that have followed.

In December 2024, it was reported that Santor had died at his home in the Cayman Islands, having taken his own life. This sorrowful news comes as the financial probe into Productivity Media continues, a horrific loss of human life placed atop the company’s already dire circumstances. This puts their future in question, and so too that of Warrior Nun’s movie trilogy. Because of the number of difficulties coupled with this new tragedy surrounding Productivity Media in recent months, English’s words come to mind once more: “A significant blow.”

The Warrior Nun we once knew is no more. Despite two years of efforts, billboards across the world, extensive media coverage (including 32 articles I wrote for ScreenRant from January 2023 to October 2024), trending hashtags, support from series creators, an explosion of fan work, multiple conventions both on- and offline centered around the show, and even the promise of a continuation, our Warrior Nun isn’t coming back. It’s a bitter pill, that the business decisions of a streaming service have plucked the feathers of a growing TV show before it got a chance to fly. A show that has changed lives, has given rise to a wonderful fandom, and that has altered how people think of the Warrior Nun brand forever.

It’s not easy to accept that Ava and Beatrice probably aren’t going to show up on our screens ever again. It’s an emotional gut-punch, considering the expert character writing, fantastic performances, wonderful villains, complex anti-heroes, and stunning choreography that went into making this unique series what it was. What it is. I want more adventures with them. I want to see what happens after Beatrice leaves the OCS and Ava comes back from the other side of the Ark. “Give me the dark Ava storyline! Give me chaotic Lilith! Give me answers about Reya!” I shout into a dark void, knowing it’s no longer going to happen.

But doom and gloom doesn’t lead to any proper solutions. I can go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about how much I miss Avatrice, and Lilith, and Father Vincent, and all the storylines we all wish got a proper continuation on-screen. But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to tell you a story. Because this show is not just an important series I happen to enjoy and happened to write extensively about on ScreenRant and my personal blog, Frayed Branches. This show changed my life. So, as we face an uncertain future, with the probability of losing this latest battle for the series we all love, I want to tell you what our Warrior Nun means to me.

I didn’t learn about Warrior Nun until January 23, 2023, when I wrote an article at ScreenRant about Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos talking about how the streaming platform has never cancelled a successful show. It was the first time I learned about the billboard campaign, and the online attempts to get the series to come back. But it was also the first time I’d ever had people reach out to me on social media, thanking me for writing about the topic. It was really neat at the time. I’d only been writing about movie and TV news for four months, yet so many people were telling me how much they appreciated what I’d written.

Then, the tidal wave crashed in. I wrote about the fandom’s Twitter campaign to save Warrior Nun via AppleTV+. The article amassed more circulation than I’d ever seen for anything I’d ever written. My followers skyrocketed. I was elated. But it wasn’t just about the numbers. Because, the more I learned about the show and its dedicated fanbase, the more intrigued I became. TV series come and go, and, unfortunately, many are cancelled without much fanfare. But the sheer level of support for this series made me curious enough that I had to watch it.

And so, the snowball began taking shape.

I watched the series, enamored by the stellar writing, gripping storylines, wonderful character development, and fantastic cinematography. Some of my favorite shots from TV are in Season 2, and Avatrice is still one of the best-written romances of the 21st century. I became obsessive. I began writing a series of essays on Frayed Branches about the show, digging into the story and characters. I was looking at fanart, engaging with fan theories, and reading (admittedly not enough) fanfiction. In the midst of writing articles, preparing a poetry collection launch, and planning out a horror short story that quickly spiraled into a YouTube series, Warrior Nun permeated my every thought. And so too did the wonderful fandom, who invited me in, not only as a journalist, but as another fan of the show.

In March 2023, I became a Senior Reporter for ScreenRant. It’s a title I continue to hold to this day, writing over two dozen articles per week on the latest movie and TV news. It’s also a position I don’t believe I would have without this show, and without the fandom supporting my articles and essays. I would not be what I am today without you or Warrior Nun, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

In the nearly two years since my first exposure to Warrior Nun, a lot has changed. Keeping up with all the popular movies and TV shows has made engaging with the fandom an ebb and flow of sorts. But the show has maintained its grip on me. While progress in my ongoing essay series has slowed to a crawl, the fandom inspired me to contribute in another way that has more of my attention right now: Mechanomica, an ongoing Warrior Nun fanfiction exploring Ava and Beatrice’s relationship through a sci-fi lens, after an alternate ending to season 1. I planned the whole thing out in July and August 2023, with the first 40 chapters somehow reaching a staggering 177,722 words. When it’s done–hopefully sometime before the end of the decade–it will likely be the longest single work I ever write in my lifetime.

Our Warrior Nun changed my life. It made me engaged with a fandom for the first time since The Walking Dead when I was in my teens. It gave me the passion to write essay after essay I could only have ever dreamed of having the energy to create. And it ignited in me a storytelling fire that I haven’t had for fanfiction in a long, long time. And it’s still informing my life today. The character studies I embarked upon have helped me write better in my original fiction. The fandom is still a constant part of my life, even if there are times where I haven’t engaged as much with them as I used to before the trilogy was announced. I am still looking at Warrior Nun fan art every day, and adding fanfiction titles to a growing list I’ve embarrassingly barely started.

But my story is just one of many. Because, if you’re reading this, chances are this fandom has changed your life too. How many people can say they’ve been part of a campaign to revive a Netflix series that has built connections and passions as strong as yours? That have forged bonds big enough to unify thousands, and strong enough to continue, even as the show itself does not? You’re still here after all this time. That doesn’t happen with something that’s just a blip on your radar. That can only happen when the thing that’s brought you here, to this moment, to these words, has an immeasurable, beautiful power. The power to keep living, even after it’s gone. Because what our Warrior Nun means to me is just one small paragraph in the larger story. A story made up of page upon page, of what Warrior Nun means to you.

The Warrior Nun we once knew is no more. But the spirit of it lives on in every single one of us that is still here. In our passion brought about in fanart, fanfiction, theories, essays, memes. Analysis of the show’s true success rate on Netflix. 461 days of Mr. Krabs ringing a bell in hopes of news. And who could forget the Father Vincent Fan Club? All of it coalesces into the soul of what makes our Warrior Nun, our Warrior Nun. The show itself may be over, with even the trilogy of movies now seemingly laying dormant for an undisclosed amount of time. But the spirit of what makes the show the show we love still resides in everything this fandom has done, does, and will do.

It’s not easy to accept that the show is over. And it’s never going to be the same. But our Warrior Nun is not lost. We’ve found it in the fandom we’ve created, in the stories we’ve produced, and in the future we can still forge, on our own terms. The memories we’ve shared on this vast journey will never fade. We have made a mark in media history, one that we can deepen with our continued fan support for the show. The series being gone can’t stop us from showing the world how much we love it.

There is the inevitable dourness that comes with knowing we won’t see it on-screen again. And it’s frustrating to think about how all of this could have turned out so much better than it has. But this fandom has taught me never to give up, even in the face of impossible odds. Even if there’s barely any realistic chance that our Warrior Nun will return, there’s no reason to give up on showing the world how much we love it. In every work of art we create in its name; in every analysis we write; in every meme we share; in every hashtag. We do what we do out of the love we feel for it. Something that can never, ever be taken away.

So now I want to know: What does our Warrior Nun mean to you? How has watching the show changed your life, whether it be in a small or even drastic way? What have you done to contribute to the fandom, whether that be creating fan works, engaging with them, or posting about your support of the series? Anything and everything Warrior Nun that is part of your life, I want to know all about it. Because the series has grown beyond itself, now, to become embodied in every single one of us. There is a spark of it that remains, and it's from those remnants that we can still love this amazing show. Because no streaming service, or movie trilogy, or production company can take away what our Warrior Nun means to us.