Sun. August 20, 2017
With Netflix unwilling to renew Sense8, but with the story left untold, xHamster has stepped up to offer themselves as a production partner.
In an August 16 open letter to Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the show's creators and Chicago natives, xHamster Vice President Alex Hawkins urged the two to consider letting his company produce the series.
Netflix announced they were cancelling Sense8 back in June, much to the dismay of the series' large LGBTQ fanbase. They have since relented, agreeing to a two-hour finale special.
Hawkins argued that while the subject matter of Sense8 may be a bit outside Netflix's wheelhouse, it would fit right in on the popular porn site, which he claimed gets more visitors daily than the New York Times or ESPN.
Hawkins also noted that the company has a long history of standing up for LGBTQ rights and other progressive causes.
"xHamster has a long history fighting for the rights of sexual speech, and non-normative sexuality," he wrote. "In addition to allowing billions of users to connect with individual articulations of gender and sexuality, we continue to use our audience to speak up against repressive anti-LGBTQ laws in the U.S. and abroad, and for sex ed in public schools, Planned Parenthood and the right of sex workers."
Hawkins admitted that his company may be an unconventional home for the series, but noted that Netflix's critics once scoffed at the idea of offering original programming.
"We think that our time, like yours, has come," he concluded.
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