To survive, HBO Max needs content, but unfortunately, they’re currently under the stranglehold of a ruthless cost-cutter. Had all gone to plan, the streamer would be promoting the Thanksgiving release of Batgirl right about now. They don’t have that anymore. But they DO have Doom Patrol! The best superhero show on TV isn’t dead yet.
Last we heard from WB about their plans for the DC Universe, they didn’t have any. The company is kind of a mess right now (as you might have heard) and though their ultimate goal is to unify the DCU in the same organized manner as the MCU, they can’t decide who’s going to be in charge of such an undertaking.
Two days ago, social media was set ablaze by the rumor that Dark Lord David Zaslav, previous king of reality garbage and newly crowned emperor of Warner Bros, was about to kill Cartoon Network by eliminating the studio that produces their content. The flames were only fanned further by Cartoon Brew, who has never seen a negative animation rumor it didn’t love, seeming to confirm the news. Folks, it ain’t so. The current state of animation at WBA may be bleak but it’s not THAT bleak.
The first thing you need to know about the just-released trailer for Doom Patrol Season 4 is that it begins with a troupe of disembodied butts singing “Shipoopi” from The Music Man. And if that sounds even the slightest bit surprising to you, you haven’t seen enough of the show yet.
When Superman And Lois returns in 2023 to what’s left of The CW, you might notice one character looks and sounds a bit different. Jordan Elsass, who played Jonathan Kent in the first two seasons of the series, is departing voluntarily. The series has picked a replacement: Australian actor Michael Bishop.
You get the sense that if it wasn’t for bad news from Warner Bros, there would be no news from them at all. They’re delaying two of their movies again, Shazam: Fury Of The Gods and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Shazam 2 was, before today, scheduled to come out this holiday season, but instead has been bumped to March 17, 2023. This, in turn, has bumped the Aquaman sequel intended for that day all the way into NEXT December — so no one will see it for eighteen months. That makes for a huge span of time between it and the first Aquaman movie.
We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less: Warner Bros and Paramount confirmed the plan to sell off their jointly-owned broadcast network The CW to nationwide station owner Nexstar is a go. Nexstar will take 75 percent ownership of the network, while WB and CBS will take 12.5% shares each, allowing them to continue producing original scripted content for the thing, though not nearly as much. CEO Mark Pedowitz will remain in his position as head of CW for now.
With disaster-in-chief David Zaslav currently making bizarre decisions at WB including the deletion of a complete Batgirl film, people have asked why the heck he went for that one instead of The Flash. We have no clue if Batgirl would have been a bad movie. The Flash, though, is shaping up to be a disaster.
A day after Hollywood was rocked by the cancellation and shelving of a fully complete Batgirl movie, current Warner Bros Discovery CEO Mike Zaslav doesn’t appear to nearly be done. Six films just disappeared today from the HBO Max menu, seemingly never to return. The move, like Batgirl, was a tax writeoff where you declare an investment to be unprofitable and sever all ties with it.
Wow. It’s not often we run across a news item that literally makes our jaws hit the floor with a “BONNGGGGGG” sound effect straight out of Tom and Jerry, but WB just pulled it off. Last year the studio announced plans to film a Batgirl movie with Leslie Grace as the title character. Now their new, brilliant owners at Discovery have decided not to go through with that movie. But here’s the thing: the movie’s done. It’s on the shelf. They spent $70 million creating it. And now they have decided to do nothing with it.
WB hasn’t always known what it’s doing with the DC universe, but one of the few times they got it right was Shazam. It was the inverse of the grimdark Snyder movies they were known for at the time: a family-oriented comedic romp about a kid who finds a way to become a superhero when shouting a magic word. He turns into a muscle-padded Zachary Levi but still has the mentality of his child self, leading to a lot of wacky moments.
The number of decent CW originals is dwindling, but we at least have Stargirl for one more year. Miss Blonde-Curls will be flying back in just before fall for another season on the network.