Here’s likely reason why latest Apple TV drama was abruptly pulled before premiere

Last week, Apple TV abruptly pulled The Hunt from its December release schedule and scrubbed virtually all marketing material for the series. A new report explains what likely happened and why we shouldn’t expect to see the series return.

The Hunt was scheduled to premiere next week on December 3. Apple TV announced the French-language series on September 25 with this description:

Franck (Benoît Magimel) and his longtime friends enjoy spending their weekends hunting together, but one Sunday, they come across another group of hunters who start targeting them without explanation. When one of their party is shot, Franck’s friends strike back, sending an attacker to the ground. Barely managing to escape, the four friends keep the event a secret. Franck tries to go back to his life as usual alongside his wife Krystel (Mélanie Laurent), but in the next few days, he starts to feel like he and his friends are being watched, or worse, tracked by hunters who are now hell-bent on revenge.

Then on November 6, Apple TV released a trailer for The Hunt four weeks before the first two episodes dropped.

But on November 20, Apple pulled the listing for The Hunt from the Apple TV app, and almost all official mentions of the series were scrubbed from Apple’s website. The aforementioned trailer was also taken down.

This marked the second Apple TV drama to be pulled from release before its premiere date in recent months.

Apple TV indefinitely delayed the release of Savant days before it was scheduled to premiere in September. However, Apple released a statement confirming that it still plans to release Savant in the future and that the decision to postpone followed careful consideration.

Apple hasn’t offered the same transparency around The Hunt’s apparent cancellation.

Instead, French journalist Clément Garin claims that The Hunt was abruptly pulled due to allegations of plagiarism. Garin reports that series screenwriter Cédric Anger is accused of ripping off a novel from 1973 called La Traqué without acknowledging the adaptation. Traqués is the original name of the French-language series.

Both Apple and Gaumont, the French film company behind the series, are reportedly considering legal action against the screenwriter. For those reasons, we shouldn’t expect to see The Hunt return to Apple TV.

Update: 12:30 pm PT: Deadline received a statement from Gaumont confirming that the series was pulled due to intellectual property concerns.

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