Why HBO Max Canceled Doom Patrol And Titans

As David Harbour's canceled "Hellboy" sequel can attest, true longevity can be something of an anomaly when it comes to superhero movie series and TV shows. In fact, combine the usual behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the entertainment business with the wealth of superhero adaptations vying for attention (not to mention the relentless pressure from the fandom to get everything right), and it seems that an aspiring superhero franchise is far more likely to end abruptly like Netflix's "Jupiter's Legacy" than it is to reign supreme for decades á la the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It doesn't get any easier after a superhero project manages to reach its audience, either. Season after season, year after year, the dance must begin anew — and in 2023, two very specific DC superhero shows experienced this the hard way. As the announcement arrived that both "Titans" and "Doom Patrol" were set to end with their fourth seasons on HBO Max, two offbeat superhero groups fell off the streaming map in one fell swoop. The reason? Both shows found themselves in the way of major Warner Bros. shakeups.

"Titans" and "Doom Patrol" were always a bit of a package deal. Both shows were produced by Greg Berlanti and were products of the DC Universe streaming service (remember that one?) before moving to HBO Max. What's more, "Titans" — a semi-gritty live-action reimagining of DC's Teen Titans team — introduced the titular "Doom Patrol" squad in its first season. So, while it feels odd to call the extremely strange "Doom Patrol" a spin-off of the more conventional "Titans," that's precisely how this particular cookie crumbles.

Another connection between the two shows is that they both found themselves in the HBO Max fold during turbulent times. The waves of the 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery merger were throwing the streamer about, with the powers that be (such as Warner Bros. head David Zaslav) making inexplicable decisions like renaming its prestigious streaming platform to Max (and, eventually, back to HBO Max again). At the time "Titans" and "Doom Patrol" were canceled, Warner Bros. was also trying to save money left and right to facilitate its streaming service's then-impending integration with Discovery+, which was likely a major reason for axing the shows.

The second thing that may have impacted the cancellations is James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Universe reboot, which was in full swing by 2023. However, while the timeline makes it easy to suspect that the DCU was a factor behind the scenes, it should be noted that Gunn and Safran weren't the ones to pull the plug. The former specifically stated this on X (previously Twitter): 

"The decision to end the series precedes us. But I certainly wish the best for the talented group of creators, actors, and the rest of the crew that produced both shows."