Lou Diamond Phillips Says he was "Gutted" by "Prodigal Son's" Cancellation

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"Prodigal Son's" Lou Diamond Phillips "Gutted" by Show's Cancellation: "Didn't See That One Coming"
by Rebecca Iannucci
May 11, 2021


Even "Prodigal Son‘s" unflappable Gil Arroyo was blindsided by news of the show’s cancellation.

After word of the Fox thriller’s demise broke on Monday, actor Lou Diamond Phillips — who has co-starred as the aforementioned NYPD lieutenant for two seasons — expressed his shock and sadness on social media.

“Wow. Gutted. Didn’t see that one coming. Might be taking a few days away from the platform,” Phillips wrote in a tweet late Monday night, adding that viewers “have been the most wonderful, entertaining, brilliant fan base I have ever encountered.”

https://tvline.com/2021/05/11/prodig...cast-reaction/

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Prodigal Son creators didn't intend the Season 2 finale to be a series finale, but...

"We were approaching it as, 'What’s the most exciting way to end Season 2?," said co-creator Chris Fedak. "We also feel, like you do, that it is not a series finale that doesn’t work because we’ve been cancelled. It still does work… This isn’t like ALF being captured by the government before they were cancelled. It’s still a good and exciting story." Fellow co-creator Sam Sklaver added: "What COVID taught us is that you’re never sure what tomorrow is going to bring. When we knew Fox had ordered 13 episodes, we needed each one to feel like a finale. If we were only able to produce 11 episodes, then it would end with Martin in Vivian’s car, and that would be cool. If it could only be 12, then it would end with Martin and Bright on a sea boat, and that seemed like a pretty great finale. We kept pushing the bar and putting ourselves in these crazier and crazier situations. The finale really feels like we’ve earned everything that happens in that moment, but it’s pretty crazy to know, in 13 episodes, we were able to tell this story. We found it very satisfying. We have a whole Season 3 story locked and loaded, and we don’t want to stop telling this story. But we’re feeling good about how this ended on Fox." Fedak added: "If you’re a network out there looking for a story, we have one. It’s ready to go. Sam and Chris will get on the phone. I feel like a rug salesman. 'Come on down to Crazy Chris’s!'" ALSO: Prodigal Son creators tease what would've happened in Season 3.

HBO Max passes on rescuing Prodigal Son

The canceled Fox drama's biggest hope for an un-cancelation was HBO Max because the show is produced by sibling studio Warner Bros. TV. Prodigal Son will continue to be shopped around.

Lou Diamond Phillips: Prodigal Son marked the first time I asked to have my character changed to Filipino American

Phillips, whose mother is Filipino and father is Scots-Irish and Cherokee, is best known for playing Mexican American and Native American roles. But he's only played a character of Filipino descent once before starring on the recently canceled Fox drama Prodigal Son. "I absolutely asked," Phillips says in an interview with Esquire. "He was originally written as Gil Martinez, which was fairly down the middle (ethnically). I said, 'Can we do something to make him a little bit more unique? I’m Filipino; I very rarely have ever played Filipino.' Chris Fedak (the show’s co-creator) happened to have grown up with a bunch of Filipinos. I gave them a list of, I believe, five Spanish-infused names that I also know were widely used in the Philippines, and Arroyo I actually took from (former Philippines’) president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who gave me a lovely presidential award back in 2004 for my work with the Filipino war veterans." Has it been frustrating for Phillips not to play Filipino roles? "No," he says. "Because in many instances, that’s a false flag. I grew up as an American kid. I grew up traveling around the world on Navy bases, spending most of my time in Navy schools with multiethnic classmates. It was never an issue for me. I was shocked by the racism that I experienced when I got to college." Phillips says that he sees it as being okay that he's played Mexican-American characters like Ritchie Valens in La Bamba. "I’m not Latinx, but (La Bamba director) Louis Valdez and I did a number of interviews recently because La Bamba was put back into the movie theaters 34 years later, and once again, he was justifying his casting of me," says Phillips. "He cast the actor he thought was best for the role, and some people go, well, he’s Filipino, he’s not Mexican-American. But those same people don’t go, Esai Morales is Puerto Rican, not Mexican-American. Elizabeth Peña was Cuban, not Mexican-American. So, where do you draw the line? I happen to agree that casting Caucasian people in what are supposed to be ethnic roles is not kosher, mostly because there is an authenticity issue. But also because it’s a matter of opportunity. You cannot compare the level of opportunity that we get, you know?"

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Lou Diamond Phillips Reflects on "Prodigal Son's" "Stunning" Cancellation, Calls Fox's Decision a "Mistake"
by Rebecca Iannucci
February 1, 2022


Lou Diamond Phillips was finding his seat on a layover flight, in early May of 2021, when he noticed "Prodigal Son" co-creator Chris Fedak was calling his cell phone. The Fox drama had already wrapped production on Season 2, and Phillips was confident he’d pick up the phone to hear that it had scored a third season.

“One hundred percent, I thought it was the call to say, ‘Hey, buddy, we’re going back to work in July,'” Phillips recalls to TVLine. “I had every reason, as did the cast and crew, to believe that this was going to be the case.”




Had Season 3 come to fruition, Phillips says, the show would have further explored a potential romance between his Gil Arroyo and Bellamy Young’s Jessica Whitly, as well as “the complications that [Gil and Jessica’s romance] would bring to Malcolm and Gil’s relationship.”

He also suggests we would have met Gil’s late wife, Jackie, via flashbacks, to illustrate “Gil’s pain, his loyalty and his devotion — the things that make him such a compassionate boss.”




And though it’s been months since "Prodigal Son‘s" run came to an abrupt end, the actor admits he’s still “stung by it,” not least because he felt the thriller was “ridiculously special” compared to other current TV fare.

“I’m not denigrating any other shows, but there’s so much that’s run-of-the-mill and safe and middle-of-the-road on television,” he continues. “For Prodigal Son to be as unique and different and exciting [as it was], and to have that cast — I just really feel as if this was a mistake.”

https://tvline.com/2022/02/01/prodig...ot-gil-bright/