Warner Bros Just Canceled Yet Another Anticipated DC Project
It looks Warner Bros is canceling another anticipated show. Nearly everything would appear to be on the studio's chopping block
Warner Bros. Discovery has made some pretty brutal cuts to its upcoming catalog, with Batgirl being its biggest causality. Now, the DC Comics series Strange Adventures has officially been added to the junk pile. The news was revealed by Kevin Smith during the latest episode of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast. Described as a DC superhero anthology, the series was said to feature characters from across the DC canon. Billed as a drama, each one-hour episode would have explored close-ended stories about the intersecting lives of ordinary folks and superhumans.
After being stranded in development for several years, Strange Adventures won’t be moving forward on HBO Max. Speaking candidly about the cancellation, the filmmaker revealed that he was working on an episode of the defunct show with Supergirl writer Eric Carrasco. Their story focused on Jimmy Olsen and Perry White being taken to Bizarro World by Bizarro, with Smith set to direct the installment too. “I got a call the other day from Eric before all of this broke and he was just like, ‘Strange Adventures is officially dead,’ and I was like, ‘Are you serious?!’ he said.
Check out Kevin Smith’s discussion about Strange Adventures and all things DC below:
Speaking about the slew of HBO cuts in more detail, Smith said it lines up with “the new moves” David Zaslav is making. “Strange Adventures being a causality kind of made sense to me. Nobody necessarily knows these characters, it sounded like an expensive show,” he admitted. In an unexpected twist, he also revealed that the series was eyeing Nicholas Cage to play Bizarro, but that they never had him locked in for a contract. Reiterating his disappointment at the overall axing of several series, the comedian said the promising future of amazing DC content on HBO Max is just gone.
This is the first time Kevin Smith has even mentioned that he was working on Strange Adventures. But since he had lent his directing skills to other Greg Berlanti projects, like The Flash and Supergirl, collaboration was not surprising. Interestingly, Warner Bros. never really explored a DC anthology series before. They almost introduced the concept with The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, until those plans changed in the show’s second season. With Strange Adventures officially canceled, it’s disappointing that Smith and Carrasco’s episode won’t be aired as the story sounded very intriguing.
Since the launch of HBO Max, Warner Bros. had been trying to create more original content from their existing properties with a focus on the DC Universe. This included original series like Titans, Doom Patrol, or spinoffs related to The Batman. Shows like Peacemaker, a spinoff from The Suicide Squad were launched in early 2022, with the streamer currently working on The Penguin, which will be an offshoot series from The Batman. In 2019, HBO Max announced that they were developing a Green Lantern series, which was given a 10-episode series order a year. With several projects, like Strange Adventures being unceremoniously scrapped it will be interesting to see how many actually survive.
Despite Strange Adventures being scrapped Smith preparing for the release of Clerks III on September 4th. The highly anticipated movie will serve as a sequel to the 1994 and 2006 movies in the franchise. The story begins when Randal Graves survives a heart attack and decides to make a movie with his best pal, Dante Hicks about their lives at the Quick Stop. Clerks III will star Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Rosario Dawson, Trevor Fehrman, Jason Mewes, and Smith.
