The most critically acclaimed Marvel TV series isn’t even officially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That distinction belongs to “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” This vibrant and creative animated series holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%, making it the sole Marvel project with a flawless Rotten Tomatoes rating. The show’s focus on a smaller scale and a communal atmosphere set it apart from most other Marvel TV shows, contributing to the uniqueness of “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” Nevertheless, like all TV shows, its run has an end: “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” has been canceled, with Season 2 being its final installment.

If it’s any comfort, viewers will not be left in suspense, even though the first episodes of Season 2 concluded with Moon Girl (Diamond White) disclosing her identity to her family, leading her mom (Sasheer Zamata) to ban her from any superhero activities. Despite the absence of a Season 3, Disney allowed the creators to release an extra 10 episodes — which were rumored to be intended for a third season — in February 2025 to conclude Season 2. While it’s heartening that Moon Girl receives a proper farewell, the beloved show has come to an end too soon.

As with many TV series, low viewership might be the reason “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” was canceled. Yet, by some standards, the show was fairly popular. Data from Parrot Analytics indicates that audience demand for “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” ranked within the top 3% of the market.

Regardless of the actual viewership, Disney’s perception of the show’s performance undoubtedly impacted its cancellation. Executive producer Steve Loter told GamesRadar+, “It’s going to be viewership that kind of dictates where we go from here.” He urged viewers to watch the Season 2 premiere in February 2024, saying that audience engagement could make or break the chances of Season 3 happening. But it seems like not enough folks watched — or at least not as many folks as Disney was hoping — because the show was canceled later that year.

Some fans speculate that Disney may have set unrealistically high viewership goals for “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” essentially setting up the show for failure. It certainly didn’t help that, after the first two episodes premiered on the Disney Channel, Disney made the next 12 episodes available on Disney+, giving viewers no reason to tune into the Disney Channel each week to watch the remaining episodes. What’s more, many viewers believe that the show could have been more successful if Disney had put more effort into promoting it. In the eyes of many fans, however, the show was canceled for a dumb reason.

A backlash may have been one of the factors that affected the cancellation of “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” The showrunners originally planned to release an episode called “The Gatekeeper,” which featured a storyline about a transgender character, yet Disney decided not to air it. In the now-leaked episode, trans teenager Brooklyn (Indya Moore) plays on a girl’s volleyball team, but the coach (Amy Sedaris) of the opposing team tries to get Brooklyn disqualified after discovering her gender identity.

Some artists who worked on the show have argued that Disney made this decision to appease (or at least avoid attacks from) the Republican Party after the U.S. presidential election in 2024. Disney claims that it had already intended to withhold that episode long before the election. However, multiple viewers have pointed out that, in order for the episode to be this close to completion, Disney must have already approved it in the earliest stages of production, only to backpedal at the last minute.

Although the banned episode was announced after Season 3 was already canceled, both were probably sources of contention within Disney long before that. Insiders within the company have revealed that Disney had stopped production on the show for more than a year before the official cancellation announcement. Storyboard artist Gabi Rodea wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in a since-deleted post, “What sucks is that a bunch of us at Disney knew about this for so long but couldn’t outright say it. The MoonGirl production area was a ghost town for over a year.” It’s sad to think that Disney may have given up on the show long before it did so officially.