Batman: Caped Crusader Canceled
Batman is going back to the Batcave – at least as far as HBO Max is concerned. Variety reports that Warner Bros. Discovery has canceled Batman: Caped Crusader, an animated series from Bruce Timm, JJ Abrams, and Matt Reeves. But that’s not all; a bunch of animated TV movies have been canceled as well: Merry Little Batman (a story about Damien Wayne, which means it’s better off gone), The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Daffy Duck and Porky Pig fight aliens), Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical (Daffy replaces Bugs Bunny in a Broadway show but gets kidnapped before he can perform), The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie (based on a British cartoon about a cat), and Did I Do That to The Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story (wait… what?). All of these canceled projects are still in production and hoping to find distribution somewhere else.
Okay, I know, Batman and stuff, but where the hell did that Steve Urkel thing come from? This is the first I’ve heard of it, and with nostalgia being such a driving force behind modern entertainment, I’m surprised it wasn’t a bigger deal. At any rate, I guess David Zaslav is continuing to prove he’s not playing games with Warner Bros. Variety notes that these cancelations jibe with his stated desire to focus more on live-action entertainment, especially with DC. Initially, I was bummed about Batman: Caped Crusader; I love the idea of a Batman series that emphasizes the noir elements, especially the suit design based on his first appearance. However, I learned today from Az at HeelvsBabyface (whom Blabs interviewed a few weeks ago) that Bruce Timm said the series would be “modern in terms of inclusivity and representation.” Nowadays, that suggests all the cool stuff will be window dressing to make the new woke thing more palatable – almost like they know nobody wants that. Or, considering the former regime at Warner Bros., maybe Timm did have good intentions, and the buzzwords were just the price of doing business. I know some people think Zaslav is trying to rid his company of wokeness – Ethan Van Sciver has made several videos about it – but I think it’s also possible, and maybe even more likely, that woke entertainment is so ubiquitous that the things he’s cutting fall into that category by default.
Are you surprised that Warner Bros. Discovery canceled Batman: Caped Crusader? Do you think another streaming service will pick it up now that it’s on the market? If that Urkel Christmas special doesn’t get made, is this even America anymore? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned to Geeks + Gamers for more of Zaslav’s trimmed fat!
Comments (2)
I agree. Their animation wing has a good reputation. I understand making theatrical films the live-action focus, but the animated stuff is a good counterpart to that.
“his stated desire to focus more on live-action entertainment, especially with DC” – That is I think a huge mistake, some of DC’s best material is their animated offerings such as the DC Animated Universe like Batman the Animated Series. Same with them canceling the Scooby-Doo project, Scooby-Doo works animated, they’ve tried live-action three different times, but it doesn’t work, and not just any animation CGI or not, the characters have to look enough like the OG versions, or it doesn’t work.
I’m just afraid Zaslav is doing a one-step forward two steps back routine.