The Australian soap was axed by Amazon last month (February 21), with the news coming just two years after it had been initially cancelled on Channel 5.
With fans and cast members alike expressing their shock at the development, Woodburne – who has played Susan Kennedy since 1994 – has addressed the latest cancellation, sharing that it “feels different” to the previous axing.
“Everyone’s got an idea of how they would like the show to end, but that [the previous] finale was written and everyone gave it 100% because we all thought: ‘This is it,’” she told TV Tonight. “This was our opportunity to honour the show and take it out with a bang.
“But I don’t think you can do that twice. It wouldn’t have the same impact. I have no doubt that [producers] will come up with a heartfelt, authentic, beautiful farewell. Everybody’s, once again, just focused on making sure that we give it our all… But it does feel different this time.
“The vibe last time, there was such an energy of, ‘Of course, they’ll keep us. Someone’s got to rescue us!’… This time, I think because we’ve been through it before, you only have one ‘first time’, don’t you? So there wasn’t the same level of anxiety, fear and heartbreak.”
Woodburne continued by adding that the news of the cancellation was “terribly disappointing” and “awfully sad”, explaining that the cast were “more stoic” due to the feelings of “gratitude” they had developed following its stint on Amazon Freevee.
With filming set to conclude in July ahead of its December finale, executive producer Jason Herbison recently shed light on the soap’s cancellation, explaining that the discontinuing of Amazon Freevee “changed the landscape.”
“We were considered a very big success on Amazon Freevee, and we’re so grateful to them for this chapter and these two and a half years,” he said. “[But we are] just simply not part of their content strategy going forward. There’s really no hard feelings with that – things change.”
