There are some Netflix cancellations you eventually make peace with. Julie and the Phantoms is not one of them. Almost six years after the musical series first arrived, fans are still wondering how a show with such a strong cast, an excellent soundtrack and so much story left to tell was allowed to end after only nine episodes. Spoiler warning! This article contains spoilers for Julie and the Phantoms Season 1, so proceed with caution if you haven’t finished the series yet.
Talk of a possible Julie and the Phantoms return has resurfaced following the news that Charlie Gillespie, who played Sunset Curve guitarist Luke Patterson, has joined Heated Rivalry Season 2. Gillespie will play Troy Barrett opposite Justice Smith’s Harris Drover, bringing another relationship from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels into the hugely popular series when it returns in spring 2027.
It is an exciting next role for Gillespie, but for Julie and the Phantoms fans, seeing his name back in the spotlight has also reopened an old wound. Social media has once again filled with people remembering Luke, revisiting the series and questioning why Netflix never gave it a second season.
And really, it is difficult to blame them.
Julie and the Phantoms Really Was That Good
Released on Netflix in September 2020, Julie and the Phantoms followed Julie Molina (Madison Reyes), a teenage musician struggling to return to music following the death of her mother. Everything changed when she accidentally summoned Luke (Gillespie), Reggie (Jeremy Shada) and Alex (Owen Patrick Joyner), the members of 1990s band Sunset Curve, who had died 25 years earlier.
Julie was normally the only living person able to see the trio, but when they performed alongside her, everyone else could see them too. From there, Julie and the Phantoms was born, giving the boys another chance to perform and allowing Julie to slowly rediscover the part of herself she had lost.
Created with High School Musical and Descendants director Kenny Ortega at the helm, the series had all the ingredients you would expect from one of his projects. The musical numbers were big, the performances were full of energy and the songs were far better than they had any right to be. What made the show work, though, was the amount of heart underneath it.
At its centre was Julie’s grief and the way music gradually became something she could love again without feeling as though she was leaving her mum behind. Luke, Reggie and Alex brought plenty of comedy to the series, but their stories also carried the reminder that these were three teenagers who died before they had the chance to grow up, leaving families, relationships and whole lives behind.
The soundtrack remains one of the easiest arguments for why the series deserved more time. “Wake Up”, “Bright”, “Edge of Great”, “Finally Free” and “Stand Tall” all became fan favourites, with “Edge of Great” going on to win Best Musical Moment at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards.
Then, of course, there was “Unsaid Emily”.
“Unsaid Emily” Still Hurts
For most of the season, Luke was the confident frontman desperate for another shot at making music, but “Unsaid Emily” showed just how much he had left behind. He had run away from home after arguing with his parents about pursuing music and never got the chance to go back, leaving them with a final memory of their son that none of them knew would be their last. It made the whole story suddenly feel much sadder.
When Julie discovers the song Luke had written for his mother, she takes it to his parents. Luke watches from inside the house as they hear “Unsaid Emily”, with the episode moving through memories of his childhood and the final moments he shared with them before leaving.
It is easily one of the strongest sequences in the entire series, and Gillespie’s performance gives the episode an emotional weight that goes well beyond what viewers might have expected when they first started watching a Netflix musical about a teenage girl forming a band with three ghosts.
“Unsaid Emily” also underlined how much more there was still to learn about the boys. Luke’s relationship with his parents received the most development during Season 1, but Alex and Reggie had histories of their own that had barely begun to be explored. The show had found a way to balance the fun of watching the band perform with something much sadder underneath, and there was clearly room to take those stories further.
Season 1 Left Far Too Much Unfinished
The cancellation becomes even more frustrating when you remember exactly where Season 1 ended.
Throughout the series, Luke, Reggie and Alex believed they needed to discover their unfinished business before they could cross over, with performing at the Orpheum seeming like the obvious answer. When that failed to make them disappear, the finale introduced a new development as Julie became able to touch the boys and their connection appeared strong enough to free them from Caleb Covington’s control, suggesting the rules of their afterlife were beginning to change.
Julie and Luke’s relationship had also grown considerably across the season. Their connection through songwriting and performing gradually became something deeper, but the series had only begun to explore what that could mean when one of them was alive and the other had been dead for 25 years.
Alex and Willie were similarly left with unfinished business of their own, particularly because of Willie’s relationship with Caleb and everything that remained unresolved between them. Then came the finale’s final twist. Caleb took possession of Nick’s body, placing him directly inside Julie’s life and setting up a major new storyline that would presumably have formed part of Season 2.
It was the kind of ending clearly designed to open another chapter, which made Netflix’s eventual decision not to continue the series particularly disappointing.
Why Was Julie and the Phantoms Cancelled?
After Julie and the Phantoms premiered, there was no immediate indication that Season 1 would be its last. The series had built a committed fanbase, its music continued to find an audience beyond the show itself and Ortega had openly discussed his hopes for another season.
Executive producers David Hoge and Dan Cross had also spoken about where the story could go next, including the boys continuing to pursue their musical ambitions and discovering more about what they were capable of as ghosts. Members of the cast had their own ideas too, from expanding Julie’s Latin culture within the series to exploring the Phantoms’ developing powers.
For more than a year, though, there was no renewal announcement. Fans repeatedly asked Netflix for news before Ortega finally confirmed in December 2021 that the streamer would not be picking the series up for another season. The response was immediate. #SaveJATP became a major fan campaign, petitions attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures and viewers organised efforts to keep attention on the show in the hope that Netflix might reconsider or another platform could step in.
None of those campaigns has resulted in a revival so far, but the fact that fans are still talking about the series years later says plenty about the impression those nine episodes made.
Could Julie and the Phantoms Season 2 Still Happen?
At the moment, there is no official indication that Julie and the Phantoms is returning for Season 2, and Charlie Gillespie joining Heated Rivalry does not change that.
A revival would be harder now than it was straight after Season 1, with the cast moving onto other projects and years having passed since filming. Any return would probably need to account for that rather than picking up where the finale left off, but the fan interest has never really gone away. Cancelled shows have come back years later before, and Julie and the Phantoms still has a dedicated audience despite only ever getting one season.
Gillespie’s role in Heated Rivalry could introduce him to a whole new audience, including viewers who missed Julie and the Phantoms when it first arrived in 2020. If some of them go back through his earlier work, the series could easily find another wave of fans wondering why it ended so soon. There is nothing to suggest a revival is currently in the works, but for those who have spent years hoping Julie, Luke, Reggie and Alex might get another chance, seeing the show back in the conversation is enough to bring those Season 2 hopes with it.
For CultureCues, Julie and the Phantoms is still one of those cancellations we have never quite got over. I loved the series when it first arrived, and it remains frustrating that a show with so much heart, such a brilliant soundtrack and so many stories left unfinished was never given the chance to continue. Years later, fans are still talking about it, still hoping for Season 2 and still mourning everything we never got to see, and I am very much among them. A return may be a long shot after all this time, but if Julie and the Phantoms taught us anything, sometimes all you need is a little shimmer to know something is still there.
All nine episodes of Julie and the Phantoms are available to stream on Netflix UK.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.