‘Wynonna Earp’ Returns With Tubi Special

Lesley Goldberg
·3 min read
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It’s a TV miracle.

Nearly three years after concluding its run on Syfy, cult favorite Wynonna Earp is returning for a 90-minute scripted special on Fox’s ad-supported streamer Tubi. The one-off is expected to air late this year according to Vanity Fair, which was first to break news of the project dubbed Vengeance.

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Creator Emily Andras penned the special, with cast members Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna), Tim Rozon (Doc Holliday), Dom Provost-Chalkley (Waverly Earp) and Katherine Barrell (Nicole Haught) all returning to reprise their roles. Paolo Barzman will return to direct. A premiere date has not yet been determined.

“Doc and Wynonna have been on an adventure, and Waverly and Nicole have been at home in [the Earp hometown of] Purgatory, doing their thing. I think it’s going to be really interesting to see, hopefully, what gets everybody home—maybe facing a challenge they’ve never faced before, something pretty intense. It’s all your favorite — hopefully — character moments, but also a little bit about growing up and sort of, like, being who you are now and earning all your choices,” Andras told Vanity Fair, noting it would appeal to both fans of the franchise and newcomers alike.

The Wynonna Earp special marks a rare scripted foray for Tubi, the free ad-supported streamer that to this point has produced only the animated comedy The Freak Brothers when it comes to scripted originals. The platform also landed HBO’s unaired second half of Joss Whedon’s The Nevers and counts a slate of lower-cost original documentaries and unscripted fare among its roster of programming.

The Earp news comes after season five of the series from Andras was previously commissioned by Syfy with former producers IDW Entertainment but was never produced.

Before concluding in April 2021 on Syfy, season four was derailed by a lack of funding from producers IDW Entertainment (Netflix’s Locke & Key). NBCUniversal-owned Syfy, which paid a licensing fee to air the Canadian series domestically, contributed additional funding to help IDW get the beloved series starring Melanie Scrofano back on track. Canadian distributor Space did the same, though Syfy at the time remained the biggest financial partner in the show. Given IDW’s ownership of the franchise, it was not possible for Syfy to produce Wynonna Earp on its own as it did not hold the rights to the show based on the comic created by Beau Smith.

As part of the July 2019 deal that got Wynonna Earp back on track, IDW Entertainment — an offshoot of the comic book company IDW Publishing — teamed with Cineflix Studios as a co-producer on the series. Cineflix Rights sold all four seasons of Wynonna Earp internationally, which helped stabilize funding issues that originally derailed the showfrom its planned 2019 return.

The lack of international sales was a key roadblock to additional funding as IDW had sold SVOD rights to the first two seasons of Wynonna Earp to Netflix. Syfy was previously committed to Wynonna Earp and originally greenlit a fifth season of the drama as part of its dealmaking for season four. The plan for season five was revealed as part of an IDW public filing and included in the deal for season four.

Ending Wynonna Earp with season four marked a reversal for Syfy, which had expected IDW to deliver a fifth season of the drama about the great-great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp. In the years since, Syfy has largely exited the scripted space save for Chucky (which it shares with corporate sibling USA Network).

At the time of the cancellation, Andras expressed hope of Wynonna Earp being able to “continue to share their inspiring tales in the future.”

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