13 Reasons Why Season 2 Friday premiere event canceled following Santa Fe shooting
The much-anticipated Netflix show premiered its Season 2 episode 1 on May 18. Following the Santa Fe High School shooting that left at least 10 dead earlier the same day, the streaming service announced the cancellation of its Friday night’s Los Angeles premiere of “13 Reasons Why” Season 2.
"Our hearts are with the victims of the Santa Fe High School shooting, and with all victims of gun violence,” Netflix said in a statement. “In light of today’s tragedy, we are cancelling the ’13 Reasons Why’ S2 premiere event tonight.”
The premiere event was expected to be attended by the show's stars including Katherine Langford, Dylan Minnette, Kate Walsh, Alisha Boe, Christian Navarro, Brandon Flynn, Miles Heizer, Justin Prentice, Ross Butler, and more, as well as executive producer Selena Gomez.
13 Reasons Why, when it first aired on March 31, 2017, it attracted controversy for taking up serious subject as suicide and glamorizing it. The drama followed the events that led up to the suicide of teenager Hannah Baker, and touched on other sensitive topics including sexual assault and bullying. There were also a few scenes on gun violence and hinting that season 2 could be all about that.
At the end of Season 1, Heizer’s character, Alex, was hospitalized after shooting himself and at the end of the season showed outcast Tyler (Devin Druid) stacking up stash of guns.
Season 2 had Netflix autoplay a warning video prefacing each episode with cast members addressing the potentially triggering topics in the series. Several of the show’s stars, including Minnette, Boe, and Navarro, also tweeted about the shooting on Friday.