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This year, Prime Video released a slate of new action thrillers and each of them found their audience. This included Jensen Ackle‘s Countdown, Daniel Dae Kim‘s Butterfly and the Maggie Q Bosch spin-off, Ballard. Despite all of them making Prime Video’s Top 10 in streaming, only Ballard was given a green light for a second season, while the other two faced the chopping block. Butterfly, in particular, was a head-scratching cancellation, especially as it surged in the streaming charts just days after the announcement of its lack of renewal. It’s clear that fans are still re-living the non-stop action of the show, so don’t let its cancellation dissuade you — Butterfly‘s single season has all the wall-to-wall espionage and heart to make for a fun binge.
‘Butterfly’ Climbed Up Prime Video’s Charts After Its Cancellation
Kim, as David Jung, is in the lead of this spy thriller meets family drama, turning into a retired spy who is presumed dead, but returns to his former stomping grounds to save his daughter from the same fate. Reina Hardesty‘s Rebecca had been groomed into a heartless, elite assassin by David’s former partner, Juno (Piper Perabo). When Rebecca finds out he is still alive, she is torn between her loyalty to her mentor and her father, leading to a cat and mouse chase that also acts as family therapy.
After Butterfly premiered on the streaming service, it hit its peak at #6 on Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming Originals in the U.S., an impressive feat that made it look like the show would have a future. Combine this with an Audience Rotten Tomatoes score of 83%, and it’s clear that the series has resonated with audiences. So, the news of the cancellation was shocking, to say the least, even if the show dropped from the charts just beforehand. Prime Video cited a broader “slate reevaluation” as the reason for not renewing the series, but what happened a few days after the news probably points to this as being an unwise or rushed decision.
Butterfly rocketed to #3 on Prime Video’s global charts, once again, finding an even bigger audience only after Amazon MGM studios pulled the plug on the show. Whether this is a response to the cancellation or a mere coincidence, it points to the question: was the decision to cancel the show made too soon? The spy thriller is clearly hooking viewers in, and considering it also ends on a wild cliffhanger, there are probably more than a few unsatisfied fans yearning for some answers. However, despite some unanswered questions, there are enough thrills in the lone season to make the show worth viewing if you haven’t already.
‘Butterfly’ Wins Us Over by Blending Together Espionage, Culture, and Emotion
Butterfly may have had a middling critical reception, earning an RT score of 68%, but there was one thing critics collectively agreed on: Kim delivered a stunning performance. Kim’s David was naturally at the center of the show and all its contrasting elements, tying them together through his acting and characterization. He becomes the driving force of the series that makes it so bingeable, even if we know there’s no second season on the horizon. As an action lead, he participates in some of the most mesmerizing and adrenaline-pumping fighting sequences, and as a father, he portrays the vulnerability and guilt of navigating his estranged relationship with his daughter.
On top of this, Kim’s performance is what makes Butterfly a well-rounded cultural milestone. During SDCC 2025, he told Collider that “Korea is definitely a character in our series, and that’s one of the things that makes our show unique.” As such, through Kim and Hardesty’s performances and father-daughter chemistry, Butterfly is able to incorporate Korean culture in an organic way rather than a “token-istic” one. David is constantly introducing Rebecca to different aspects of Korean culture, like drinking Makgeolli or even through how they interact with different cities in the respective episodes titled after them, like “Busan” or “Seoul.”
So, even though Butterfly hasn’t been renewed for a second season, considering the show’s action-packed atmosphere and its importance as a cultural milestone, it’s still definitely worth the watch anyway. The six episodes are filled with so many twists and so much heart, that it’ll suck you in from the second you see Kim’s David skulking around in the shadows. Between its tumultuous pace and emotional storyteling, it is primed for a weekend binge. We may wish that Season 2 was green lit to, at the very least, address the final cliffhanger, but Butterfly’s first season alone is an enticing must-watch, rolling cutthroat assassins and family nuance into one gripping package.
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