Fox announced Friday that Sleepy Hollow has been renewed for a fourth season, and people are not feeling it.
The renewal comes one month after Nicole Beharie's character Abbie Mills was killed off in the show's Season 3 finale, a controversial move that outraged some of the show's audience. Devastated over the departure of Sleepy Hollow's female lead and one of network television's few women of color in a starring role, fans took their disapproval to Twitter. Soon #CancelSleepyHollow and #AbbieMillsDeservesBetter began trending.
And though fans were shocked to see Beharie go, the actor had reportedly wanted to leave the series for quite some time.
The Sleepy Hollow renewal reignited fans' anger, and backlash quickly ensued on social media.
Many criticized Fox's treatment of Beharie's character, arguing that the network reduced her to a mere sidekick.
#Iwontbewatchingsleepyhollow - Because a heroic black woman was reduced to being the help. May sleepy hollow crash and burn. @FOXTV
#iwontbewatchingsleepyhollow because Abbie Mills deserved more than being confined to the role of magical negro.
#iwontbewatchingsleepyhollow because they took the hero's story of a blk female lead and made it about carrying the white male lead forward
They allege that Fox's renewal of the show — despite Beharie's departure — is a sign of racism and sexism.
#IWontBeWatchingSleepyHollow Because I don't support anti-blackness, racism, sexism nor the writers who thrive on it. #SleepyHollow
Let me tell you some tea about #SleepyHollow. If the writers would've killed the white man, the show would've been canceled. That's all.
I really loved #SleepyHollow but what all this rigmarole reinforces is the interchangeability of POC while the white man remains constant.
The message sent is our black female lead isn't necessary for #SleepyHollow to thrive. Very gross message @FOXTV. 12 actors down, so far.
#IWontBeWatchingSleepyHollow tv is supposed to be an escape. I need only read the papers to see black women disrespected. #SleepyHollow
Some stressed that Sleepy Hollow has always been about both Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills.
#sleepyhollow was never strictly about Crane. That doesn't even make sense. But keep making brilliant decisions, networks...
#IWontBeWatchingSleepyHollow because for me the beating heart of the story was Abbie and Crane TOGETHER.
Thus, some fans declared that they won't be watching the upcoming season.
So they gon' renew #SleepyHollow without our girl Nicole Beharie. Oh, ok @FOXTV. #IWontBeWatchingSleepyHollow
#IWontBeWatchingSleepyHollow without Abbie Mills. PERIOD.
#IWontBeWatchingSleepyHollow because Nicole Beharie was the life blood of that show and i have no interest in watching dead things!
Once again #SleepyHollow is trending for the wrong reasons. I'm sure it'll get canceled mid season and we'll be like