Batman: Caped Crusader Animated Series Has Been Canceled At HBO Max
HBO Max is canceling yet another group of animated series and films? Must be a day that ends in "Y."
After last week's proverbial bloodbath of scrubbing nearly 40 mostly animated series, 20 of which were HBO Max exclusives, from the streaming platform, we've recently learned that the hit to animation hasn't stopped yet. According to Variety, six more upcoming animated projects have been canceled, including "Batman: Caped Crusader," the follow-up to "Batman: The Animated Series" from executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves.
Additional projects getting the shaft include "Merry Little Batman," "Did I Do That to the Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story," "The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie," and two different "Looney Tunes" films, "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" and "Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical." Fortunately, production on all of the projects is expected to continue with the intent to shop them around to other platforms outside of HBO Max, with Warner Bros. Animation serving as the studio for all but "The Amazing World of Gumball," which is being produced by H-B Studios Europe. The news came just hours after it was announced that HBO Max and Cartoon Network were pulling the plug on "Driftwood," which was slated to become the first original film produced by Cartoon Network Studios for HBO Max.
The hashtag "#FireDavidZaslav" started trending on Twitter shortly after the second wave of animated project cancellation announcements, in reference to the new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO. Safe to say that people are very unhappy with this decision, regardless of what it means for the Warner Bros. Discovery bottom line.
Even Warner Bros. institutions aren't safe
It was shocking enough when it was announced that the upcoming "Batgirl" film had been shelved, with many fearing this was a sign that not even the most popular Warner Bros. intellectual property was safe. Given today's announcements, it seems this fear is tragically based in reality. "Batman: Caped Crusader" would have been the spiritual successor to arguably the greatest adaptation of the "Batman" comics in history, and would have united the series' creator Bruce Timm with the director of the newest extremely successful live-action Bat-film, Matt Reeves. It seems like a no-brainer to want a series like this to exist on HBO Max alongside the other Bat-projects, but apparently, that makes too much common sense to be seen as a solid business plan.
More alarming, however, is the cancellation of two separate "Looney Tunes" movies. Bugs Bunny is so synonymous with Warner Bros., he used to stand alongside the company logo in their family entertainment bumpers. Bugs Bunny is Warner Bros. Hell, Six Flags theme parks, who partner with Warner Bros. flood their parks with both Batman and Bugs Bunny iconography. To see both properties devalued by their own streaming platform is, well, looney.