The shockwaves from the recent Warner Bros. Discovery restructuring are still being felt as the cancellation of other DC programming is made public. Strange Adventures, another DC Comics-related project, has been revealed to be cancelled. But unlike other comparable projects, Strange Adventures’ demise had little to do with the new strategy change stated by Warner Bros. management. While Batgirl had already completed production and was about to launch on HBO Max, Strange Adventures was cancelled before it had begun.
Before WBD announced their strategy shift, filmmaker Kevin Smith disclosed on his podcast Hollywood Babble-On that he had been on the production crew of Strange Adventures to compose episodes for the anthology series. In light of the cancellation of Batgirl, Smith explained the reasons that led to the end of Strange Adventures, stating that the decision “sort of made sense to me.” Smith disclosed that he and his regular creative collaborator, Eric Carrasco, were working together to write the screenplay for an episode of the programme when Carrasco broke the news that production had been halted on the series.
Smith told Carrasco about the show’s intention to highlight lesser-known DC characters like Bizarro and the newly introduced Jimmy Olsen and Perry White by reading from his screenplay. Smith also said that he wanted Nicolas Cage to play Bizarro but was unable to finalise a deal with him. The estimated cost of producing an episode of Strange Adventures was between $16 million and $20 million, which Smith justified by noting the show will use less known comic book characters.
“Nobody necessarily knows these people and it sounds like a costly show,” Smith said on the programme. Smith and his podcast co-host Ralph Garman implied that the Green Lantern series might meet the same fate as Strange Adventures, the second Berlanti Productions project to receive a green light.
In contrast, it has now been announced that Green Lantern will indeed continue to be produced. Smith had previously criticised Warner Bros. Discovery’s cancellation of Batgirl on an episode of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast, calling it a “baffling decision” that will be disheartening for Batgirl’s directors Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi, whose careers were on the upswing after they directed Bad Boys for Life (2020) and two highly rated episodes of Disney+’s Ms. Marvel.