Origin stories, Amazons, and Nicolas Cage — there's a lot of things we'll never see from these DC shows that got the ax.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Origin Stories, Amazons, and Nicolas Cage? There's a lot of things we'll never see from
00:06these DC shows that got the axe.
00:09In the live-action world, DC hasn't had a lot of luck with the Green Lantern. First
00:13off, the film starring Ryan Reynolds, which was meant to kick-start the DCEU, flopped
00:18at the box office, making $219 million from a $200 million budget. Then the attempt to
00:24introduce the hero in The Arrowverse was largely a start-stop affair, as the CW never
00:30fully unleashed John Diggle as the new Green Lantern.
00:33There seemed to be some hope on the horizon, though, as The Arrowverse's mastermind, Greg
00:37Berlanti, began work on a Green Lantern TV series for HBO Max in 2019. Berlanti brought
00:43in Seth Graham-Smith as a writer and showrunner for the series. Of course, Graham-Smith is
00:48no novice to comic book adaptations, having written the story for The Lego Batman Movie.
00:53The showrunner got to work on The Green Lantern Show, and two leads were cast in the shape
00:56of Finn Wittrock as Guy Gardner and Jeremy Irvine as Alan Scott. The show would've featured
01:02other Lanterns from the comics, as well as an entirely new Lantern. Graham-Smith completed
01:07eight episodes for the season. In October 2022, however, a decision was made to pivot
01:12in a different direction and make the show about Jon Stewart. The showrunner departed
01:16the show thereafter.
01:18The launch of HBO Max ushered in a wave of excitement from DC fans. As Warner Bros.'
01:23official streaming service, part of the grand plan was to utilize DC's properties to create
01:28exclusive shows for the platform. In 2021, Variety reported that a Constantine series
01:33was being developed by J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions company. Reportedly,
01:37it would've formed a part of the justicely dark world that Abrams was set to build out
01:42for HBO Max. There were also rumors floating around social media that Gangs of London star
01:47Shopei Derisu was in line to portray the Hellblazer on the show. However, the actor told NME that
01:52he wasn't ever going to play Constantine, though stopped short of discussing if he had
01:56been cast for another role in the series.
01:59In September 2022, something that no one expected happened. A sequel to the 2005 Constantine
02:05film was announced. According to Variety, Keanu Reeves would return to portray the lead
02:09character on the big screen. Simultaneously, the film's announcement also signaled the
02:13end for HBO Max's Constantine series.
02:16A gift, John."
02:19One of the more interesting propositions that was meant to debut on the DC Universe streaming
02:24app was the show called Metropolis. The drama series was meant to act as a Superman prequel
02:29that would've followed Lex Luthor and Lois Lane in the infamous city as they explored
02:33the mythos of this part of the DC Universe.
02:36The brains behind Metropolis were John Stevens and Danny Cannon, who had been the executive
02:41producers on the Fox series Gotham. Thirteen episodes were ordered in 2018, with plans
02:46for the show to air in 2019. However, Deadline later reported that the show went into redevelopment.
02:52Later that year, though, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the show had been canned, despite
02:55no official announcement from DC about the project's status. That said, it's safe to
03:00say that whichever incarnation of the series was planned back then is all but dead in the
03:04water now. Perhaps some of the ideas for the show might be utilized for future Superman
03:09adaptations.
03:11Having debuted in Omega Men No. 3, it took Lobo 36 years to make his live-action debut
03:16in the second season of the sci-fi series Krypton. The main man is portrayed by Emmett
03:20J. Scanlon, who embraced the character's wild nature and won over many fans who had doubted
03:26his casting at first. However, Lobo's appearance in Krypton was meant to serve as a backdoor
03:31pilot for his own show. Scanlon had signed on to star in his own solo series, which would've
03:36featured Krypton executive producer Cameron Welsh being involved in the spinoff too. Unfortunately,
03:41the ratings for season two dropped dramatically, and Krypton was canceled.
03:45The Lobo TV series ended up being collateral damage in the process as well. In an interview
03:49with CBR, Scanlon reflected on playing Lobo, saying the character was the perfect merger
03:54of Wolverine and the Joker. He added how thinking about the main man brings back fond memories.
04:00However, he is disappointed that his run ended so unexpectedly.
04:04Holy swankaroli! Feels like I've been torn apart!
04:11Arrow birthed a number of other shows, such as The Flash and DC's Legends of Tomorrow.
04:17The season eight episode titled Green Arrow and the Canaries was meant to serve as a backdoor
04:21pilot for a future spinoff series of the same name on The CW. The storyline was set in 2040,
04:27where Oliver Queen's daughter Mia takes up the Green Arrow mantle and teams up with Laura
04:32Lance and Dina Drake to take down the rogues.
04:35In January 2021, the plug was pulled on any potential Green Arrow and the Canaries series,
04:40as The CW decided not to go ahead with it. Soon after, Arrow co-creator Mark Guggenheim
04:44revealed on Twitter that the decision was largely influenced by the effects of the COVID-19
04:49pandemic.
04:50Katie Cassidy wasn't too shattered by this turn of events, though, as she explained to
04:53ComicBookMovie.com that the Arrowverse had been more than successful. She said,
04:58I say this in the most respectful, kind, realistic way. We really, really milked that cow.
05:05I don't think I've taken down so many buildings at once.
05:09There's a reason the Titans TV series doesn't have teen anywhere in its title. However,
05:14there are many teen Titans fans who would love nothing more than to see a live-action
05:18adaptation of the beloved youthful team and all their exuberance. And it almost happened
05:23before Titans received the green light.
05:26As reported by Variety, TNT had planned to make a teen Titans show that centered around
05:31Dick Grayson and his transition from Robin to Nightwing. In 2016, former TNT president
05:36Kevin Reilly announced the production had been shelved and would not take flight at
05:40all. The Titans lived on, though, and finally received their own show in 2018.
05:45The CW's Arrowverse proved that it wasn't afraid to take risks on relatively newer DC
05:51characters, like Naomi. In fact, there was even a plan to create a Wonder Girl show about
05:56Yara Floor, the hero who is half Amazonian and half Brazilian rain god. Floor hadn't
06:01even made her debut in DC Comics at the time of this announcement in 2020, but she had
06:06been deemed compelling and interesting enough to get her own show. Unfortunately, it felt
06:10like the brakes were pumped on the series before it had even gotten out of first gear.
06:14Showrunner and writer Dalen Rodriguez broke the news about the cancellation of Wonder
06:18Girl on her Twitter account in February 2021. Yara Floor went on to make her official debut
06:23in Dark Knights Death Metal No. 7, which was released in January 2021.
06:29For three seasons, Hawk and Dove were an important part of Titans as everyone's favorite crime-fighting
06:35couple. After Jason Todd clipped Hawk's wings, Dove also flooded away from the series. Actor
06:40Alan Richson revealed to Entertainment Weekly that it wasn't his decision to leave the show,
06:44but a choice made by the creative team and producers who needed to cut down the number
06:48of cast members.
06:49Discussing his experience on Titans, Richson shared some important details about the characters
06:54of Hawk and Dove, and how they were originally supposed to feature from the inception. He
06:58said,
06:59"...my initial deal was for two episodes, and I had a separate deal for a Hawk and Dove
07:03spinoff. And when we shot those two episodes, they really enjoyed us as Titans and invited
07:08us to join more episodes in the back half of the first season."
07:12Richson added he believed the chances of a spinoff were always unlikely if the characters
07:16were a core part of the Titans team, but he was told that it would happen since they were
07:20so popular on the show. Unfortunately, the spinoff never materialized.
07:24"...you didn't wait for me. You would have said not tonight."
07:28The superhero Static first catapulted the public's attention with the release of the
07:33Static Shock animated show. Running for 52 episodes, fans fell in love with Virgil Hawkins
07:39and how he balanced the crime-fighting life with the trials and tribulations of being
07:43a teenager.
07:44The goodwill of the series resulted in many people wondering when a live-action version
07:48of Static would debut. In 2014, Warner Bros. unveiled a new division called Blue Ribbon
07:53Content, which would be responsible for creating shows and cartoons for the studio.
07:58One of the first projects announced for this venture was a live-action Static Shock show
08:03created by director, writer, and producer Reginald Hudlin. A year later, in an interview
08:07with Flicks in the City, actor Tyler James Williams suggested that Jaden Smith had already
08:12been cast as the lead for the show. As interesting as the show sounded, it never seemed to go
08:18anywhere.
08:19The idea for the show appears to have morphed into a film as it was announced in March 2021
08:23that Hudlin and Michael B. Jordan would be producing a live-action Static Shock movie.
08:29The superhero boom in the 2010s inspired networks and studios to get in on a piece of the action.
08:35Considering the success of the 70s Wonder Woman TV series starring Linda Carter, executives
08:39must have been salivating at the thought of trying something similar in a more lucrative
08:44modern era.
08:45In 2011, a pilot for a new potential show was produced, which starred Adrienne Blicki
08:49as the titular hero, but it was never picked up. A year later, Vulture reported that the
08:53CW was eyeing a series that would follow a young Diana Prince before she became Wonder
08:58Woman. The working title for the show was Amazon.
09:01For a few years, murmurs about the project occasionally popped up, and the show remained
09:05a possibility. However, it all went ice cold after the confirmation that Gal Gadot would
09:10portray Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe.
09:13The CW's former CEO, Mark Pedowitz, revealed at the 2017 TV Critics Association that the
09:18network ceased all plans to take a stab at Amazon after the success of Gadot's Wonder
09:23Woman had ended any chance of it ever happening.
09:25You are stronger than you believe.
09:28August 2022 was a tumultuous time for DC fans, as the new leadership of Warner Bros.
09:35Discovery took the hammer to various projects. It all started with the shocking cancellation
09:40of the Batgirl movie, but the anthology series, Strange Adventures, was also revealed to be
09:45off the table around this time.
09:46However, the news of the show's cancellation was actually broken by filmmaker Kevin Smith
09:51on his podcast, Hollywood Babylon. Smith explained he had been working on an episode for the
09:55show that would have featured Bizarro and Jimmy Olsen. He added that he was trying to
10:00secure Nicolas Cage's services to portray Bizarro, which would have certainly been a
10:04big get for the production. The Hollywood Reporter cited its own sources that said the
10:08project had been silently canned months before the WBDC purge.
10:13In the world of comics, Madame Xanadu is a well-known and powerful sorcerer in the mystic
10:19part of the DC Universe. It might have taken a while to happen, but the character eventually
10:23made her live-action debut in 2019's Swamp Thing TV show, where she was portrayed by
10:28actor Gerald Prescott. While it would have made sense to spin off the character from
10:32that series into her own solo vehicle, the controversial axing of Swamp Thing ended this
10:37iteration of Madame X.
10:39However, J.J. Abrams and his production company, Bad Robot Productions, had other ideas which
10:44would have incorporated Madame X into their vision of DC shows on HBO Max. Abrams' end
10:50goal was to create a Justice League Dark franchise for the streamer, in which multiple characters
10:55would have had their own programs. One part of the overall puzzle was a Madame X series
11:01that would have been helmed by writer, director, and producer Angela Robinson. Unfortunately,
11:05the turbulence at Warner Bros. Discovery and its upheaval of DC programming in 2022 claimed
11:11yet another victim in the shape of the Madame X show.