Malin Akerman and Brittany Snow in Netflix's 'The Hunting Wives.' Kent Smith/Netflix Logo text [This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of The Hunting Wives.] Upper class Texan women who like to shoot guns, drink and hit the party circuit - and who maybe kill people - are having a moment thanks to The Hunting Wives. The Netflix series from creator Rebecca Cutter that stars Malin Akerman and Brittany Snow needs little introduction by now. The Hunting Wives hit a new milestone last week when it became the most-viewed streaming series in the U.S., after hanging out in the Netflix Top 10 for more than a month following its July 21 release. Related Stories Movies Kathryn Bigelow's 'A House of Dynamite' Lights Up Venice Film Festival With 11-Minute Standing Ovation Music VMAs Set Preshow Details and Presenters Including Jessica Simpson, 'Hunting Wives' and 'KPop Demon Hunters' Stars, Paris Hilton But the binge-y, erotic crime thriller wasn't always at Netflix. Cutter, who created Starz drama Hightown, was initially making The Hunting Wives also for Starz. The cable network's tagline is "We're All Adults Here," which explains how the racy series - complete with more nudity, sex, violence and politics than you might expect from a typical Netflix offering - ended up at the streaming giant. Heading into Starz's split from Lionsgate in May (which became official this summer), the TV studio behind The Hunting Wives pivoted and took Cutter's series to the open market. (Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter the show didn't fit Starz's go-forward programming strategy as a standalone network; Starz and Lionsgate agreed on the parting.) There was buzz by then around The Hunting Wives, an adaptation of May Cobb's 2021 bestseller that is produced by Lionsgate Television and 3 Arts Entertainment. Netflix was the most aggressive and quickly jumped, confirming a summer release for only weeks later and prompting Lionsgate to mobilize a grassroots marketing campaign around the acquisition. "Rebecca is a risk-taker. There's nothing tentative in her approach to these characters; it was a big and noisy idea that would really make you lean in," says Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate Television Group chair and chief creative officer. "We were hopeful it would perform, but none of us could have imagined the instant reaction and then the staying power of the show." The Hunting Wives became the sexed-up social commentary success of summer, tapping into the zeitgeist and flooding Cutter's social media feed with hot takes from both critics and viewers about how The Hunting Wives brought both sex and the culture wars back to TV, as it centers on the East Texan clique of conservative wives. Some viewers were even questioning their sexuality over the main romance between Akerman and Snow's characters, queen bee Margo and the new liberal in town, Sophie, respectively. The streamer is already in discussions with the Hunting Wives team for a second season, per a source. "I've heard some people say that the show is part of this new mandate to make red-state content, and that wasn't what it was. I mean, it was for horny middle-aged women," Cutter tells THR of her "anti-prestige" addictive series. "It got to come into Netflix feeling really different than any other show on Netflix." Below, the creator, writer and showrunner shares more of The Hunting Wives' journey from Starz to Netflix while opening up about her multi-season plan and revealing some of her season two ideas as she awaits an official renewal following that very intentional and wild cliffhanger finale: "This was never, in my mind, a limited series," she says of more Margo and Sophie to come. *** There's no one in my social circle who hasn't binged The Hunting Wives by now. That's amazing. My husband watched it, and he was like, "Well, it's not as good as your other show, but it's pretty good." I was like, OK, tough crowd! All of these weeks later, the show is still topping the streaming charts. It's fun to speak with you after you've been engaging with the viewer response all summer. What has this ride been like for you - is your social media feed nonstop? Pretty much. It's starting to slow down a little bit, and I don't know if I'll be sad when it's over. For a little while I was like, "This is a full-time job." But it's amazing. Especially considering that this show was made for Starz. I've had a show on Starz [Hightown, for three seasons]. It doesn't matter how good the show is, it just doesn't get this big of a response in my experience. And for a while, it was questionable if The Hunting Wives was even coming out at all. So then once I heard it was at Netflix, it was like, "OK, that's the best possible outcome." And I started to feel like it could be a hit. But you don't know. No one called me from Netflix, they kind of threw it up there [when it released]. So really, who knows? I was thinking, maybe it'll be like Adolescence and be popular, or maybe it will just come and go.