As we’ve seen from a handful of projects to have entered development under the stewardship of J.J. Abrams, Warner Bros. and HBO don’t have an issue canning episodic originals based on DC characters if they don’t find themselves won over by the initial pitch.
With that in mind, just because James Gunn and Peter Safran are overseeing the film, television, live-action, and animated side of the comic book company’s output, it doesn’t mean every single one of them is guaranteed to make it to air, regardless of whether they’ve been announced, confirmed, teased, or even vaguely hinted at.
Speaking to Variety about the incoming slate that includes Creature Commandos, Waller, Lanterns, Paradise Lost, and Booster Gold, HBO chief Casey Bloys ominously intoned that if something isn’t working, then he’s happy to explore other options that will.
“As I talked to James and Peter about it, we’re going to develop these things and hopefully they’re all great. If they’re not, we’ll have other options and we’ll see. But what’s most exciting is that they’ve got a plan. Anything that James is excited about in terms of DC, I’m good with. I just want to make sure for Max that they’re the best shows that we can do.”
We’d wager that they’ll all be safe in their current iterations, but given that cancellation sprees are all the rage these days on virtually every notable streaming service, there might come a day when Gunn and Safran are having to fight an uphill battle to get a DCU project on the airwaves, because quality is apparently what comes first for Bloys and his team.