Another casualty of the massive turnaround from Warner Bros Discovery, it has now been confirmed that the studio has stopped development on their Strange Adventures show for HBO Max. Announced in late October of 2019, Strange Adventures was shaping up to be a Twilight Zone-esque anthology that would’ve served as “cautionary tales set in a world where superpowers exist.” The 1-hour drama, which was to be executive produced by Greg Berlanti, would’ve involved characters from all over the DC Universe.
Kevin Smith, who had previously collaborated with Berlanti, directing episodes of The Flash and Supergirl, revealed on Hollywood Babble-On that he had been working on an episode of Strange Adventures alongside Supergirl writer Eric Carrasco. This episode, which Smith had intended to direct, would have centered around Jimmy Olsen and Perry White being taken by Bizarro to Bizarro World. Additionally, they were looking at Nicolas Cage to play the character of Bizarro. However, according to Smith, the project has been canceled and will not be moving forward at the studio:
“It feels like what was once, to me, a promising future of we are going to see a bunch of DC stuff on HBO Max; MORE DC stuff than we would see theatrically, including shit like Strange Adventures…gone! All of it is just f—king gone now. I got a call the other day from Eric before all of this story broke and he was just like “Strange Adventures is officially dead,” and I was like “What the f–k, are you serious?!” I know we haven’t heard from them for a while, but I guess this goes in parts with the new moves with David Zaslav. But good lord, I thought Strange Adventures being a causality kind of made sense to me. Nobody necessarily knows these characters; it sounded like an expensive show.”
Strange Adventures‘ cancellation is indeed in line with the array of projects getting nixed by Warner Bros. Discovery. Notably, Batgirl was scrapped despite being in the post-production process and $78 million already being spent on it. Wonder Twins, a project also slated for HBO Max, was canceled earlier this year as well. And at the pace in which David Zaslav has been clearing house in terms of previously announced projects in development, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume more projects will meet an untimely end before they move any further.
