Gravity Falls Cancelled At Disney XD – No Season 3

Gravity Falls has been cancelled after two seasons at Disney XD. There will not be a third season of the animated series,

Taking to Tumblr, series creator Alex Hirsch announced that the show will end after the next two episodes, “Weirdmageddon II: Escape from Reality,” airing Nov. 23, and the series finale, “Weirdmageddon III,” airing in 2016.

Hirsch says the decision to cancel Gravity Falls was made by himself and not the network, with the view that it was always intended to be a very finite series:

There’s no easy way to say it so I’m just going to say it: Gravity Falls is coming to an end. There are two more episodes left: “Weirdmageddon II: Escape from Reality” and “Weirdmageddon III” which will be our hour long series finale. After that, Gravity Falls as we know it will be over.

I know how tough this will be for many fans, and I feel you guys. But before you start sending me .GIF’s of pitchforks and torches let me explain.

The first thing to know is that the show isn’t being cancelled- it’s being finished. This is 100% my choice, and its something I decided on a very long time ago. I always designed Gravity Falls to be a finite series about one epic summer- a series with a beginning, middle, and end. There are so many shows that go on endlessly until they lose their original spark, or mysteries that are cancelled before they ever get a chance to payoff.

But I wanted Gravity Falls to have a mystery that had a real answer, an adventure that had a real climax, and an ending that had a real conclusion for the characters I care so much about. This is very unusual in television and a pretty big experiment, and Disney for their part has been enormously supportive. I know that hits are rare in this business, and its hard to let one of them go, so I’m so grateful that this company has had the vision to let me start (and end) the show the way I always wanted to.

Why did we wait so long to announce that this was the last season? The truth is, it wasn’t up to me. Before we started Season 2, my writers and I decided that this season would be the last. I wanted to announce this to the world at large then, but I was restricted from doing so, mainly because I think a lot of people were hoping I’d change my mind.

But Gravity Falls was never meant to be a series that goes on and on forever. It’s meant to be an exploration of the experience of summer, and in a larger sense a story about childhood itself. The fact that childhood ends is exactly what makes it so precious- and why you should cherish it while it lasts.

No words can describe how grateful I am for the millions of fans who have cherished Gravity Falls for the time that it’s been on air. Running a TV show, especially one where you write, direct, supervise, and co-star, can be an incredibly grueling experience. But every hand-written letter, tweet, tattoo, piece of art, costume and creation from the fans made this enormous undertaking worthwhile. To the Gravity Falls fandom- I love you guys. You’re weird and clever and smart and curious and have been a constant inspiration to me and the crew. You’ve picked us up when we felt down and pushed and inspired us to do the best work we possibly could. I hope you enjoy watching our finale as much as we enjoyed dreaming it up.

And if you don’t, keep it to yourself, pal! Yeesh!

On the possibility of one day reviving Gravity Falls for Season 3, or seeing the characters again, Hirsch is leaving the door ajar:

I know that there will be many fans who will be sad to see the Pines family go, but just because I’ve finished the story I wanted to tell doesn’t necessarily mean we will never see Dipper, Mabel, & Stan again. It means that this chapter is closed, and that I, at least for now, am personally done telling their story.

In a statement, Disney XD said:

“Alex Hirsch had a masterful plan for the stories and characters of Gravity Falls and, through 40 episodes and 17 shorts, he and a team of outstanding writers, artists and actors consistently delivered an inspired and unique story. … [We] look forward to treating fans to two fun programming events that conclude the story of Gravity Falls.”

RIP.