Will There Be A 'World on Fire' Season 3? 'Masterpiece' Has Bad News For Fans

Since November 2023, when Hotel Portofino, World on Fire, and Annika concluded their second seasons, fans have been writing to us at Telly Visions, asking where the third season renewals are for the latter two shows. Hotel Portofino was renewed for Season 3 long before Season 2 aired in the U.S., but there was no word from Masterpiece about a new season for either World on Fire or Annika, which made fans nervous. And now the worst news has been delivered: World on Fire is canceled and will not return for a third season.

World on Fire was a profoundly ambitious series, with a plan for five seasons covering from 1939 to 1944. It was, in many ways, a victim of the pandemic. The first season is a globe-trotting look at World War II, told from the point of view of those who never get centered in the kinds of stories: women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and the traumatized. Even the "traditional white cismale hero character," Harry, was a reversal of the trope, as the utterly incompetent fool who fails upward.

However, filming across continents meant that its production was shut down far longer than most between Seasons 1 and 2, and in the interim, it lost its marquee stars, Sean Bean and Helen Hunt. While the show tried to find ways to mitigate the losses and, in some places, arguably upgraded (the Egypt-set storyline was especially affecting), it wasn't enough to overcome the four-year gap between airing Seasons 1 and 2. The BBC has decided to walk away from the series, and Masterpiece has accepted the decision.