Walker: Independence star Katherine McNamara recently revealed how she found out that the Western series had been canceled by The CW after one season.
"Oh goodness. I found out, you know, one of the showrunners and one of the producers called me, and you know, obviously it’s not, it’s not the call we want to get," the actor, who portrayed Abby Walker in Independence, said in an upcoming episode of The Wayne Ayers Podcast (via Just Jared Jr.). "It’s not the news we wanted to hear, but I think the show and the story will always have a special place in all of our hearts."
McNamara continued, "It was such an incredible experience to get to work on a show and tell a story that meant so much to all of us, and with people who really, we all meant so much to each other. Nothing in this industry lasts forever and the fact that we can walk away from that story knowing that we did everything we could, and we loved our time doing it and the people we did it with. I think that’s the biggest takeaway."
What Is Walker: Independence?
Walker: Independence premiered on The CW in October 2022, wrapping up its 13-episode first and now final season in March 2023. Independence was a prequel spinoff series of The CW's Walker, starring Jared Padalecki, which itself is a reboot of the CBS drama series Walker, Texas Ranger that ran for 200 episodes across eight seasons in the 1990s. Independence was set in the titular Texas town, following McNamara's Abby as she encounters diverse and eclectic residents running from their pasts, chasing their dreams, and keeping their own secrets. The cast also included Matt Barr, Justin Johnson Cortez, Philemon Chambers, Greg Hovanessian, Katie Findlay and Lawrence Kao.
The CW canceled Walker: Independence in May 2023, shortly after the network renewed the mothership series for a fourth season. Padalecki, who is an executive producer on Independence, quickly released a statement to the fans saying that they "are aggressively looking for a place that Walker: Independence can land." The fan-favorite actor added, "I think canceled is maybe the most common word used, but I think a better way to look at it is that Walker: Independence will not be on The CW next year." However, despite this and the online fan campaign #SaveWalkerIndependence, the Western series has not been able to find a new home as of the time of writing.
Source: The Wayne Ayers Podcast, via Just Jared Jr.