It’s been four years since J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot signed an eye-watering $250 million development deal with Warner Bros. for film and television content, and in that time the filmmaker and his production company have conspired to reward that investment with absolutely nothing.
Since the ink dried, Abrams has lent his name to Disney’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Apple TV’s Lisey’s Story, Netflix’s Lou, and Showtime’s UFO, but nothing from the company that handed him a quarter of a billion dollars to craft exclusive projects that can’t be found anywhere else.
During that period, Abrams’ plans to carve out his own corner of the DC universe imploded when Justice League Dark, Zatanna, and a Constantine reboot to name but three hit the skids, while Batman: Caped Crusader was given the boot and Demimonde was scrapped altogether. In short, it might be one of the worst deals WB has ever signed, but at least the company has suspended it in the face of the ongoing strikes.
While there’s admittedly no point in having creatives developing feature-length and episodic content that can’t be worked on when actors and writers have downed tools, it’s unintentionally hilarious that Warner Bros. Discovery has opted to officially prevent Abrams and Bad Robot from working on anything, even though they’ve yet to reward their corporate overlords with a single thing.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the $250 million hasn’t exactly yielded massive rewards, but at least now he’s got an excuse for sitting idly by and letting the slate gather dust.
