Kevin Smith Updates HBO Max’s Strange Adventures & Green Lantern

So Warner Bros. Discovery held its attention-grabbing earnings call last week, and fans of HBO Max’s DCU content were waiting to hear which of their favorite shows would be on the chopping block. And when the dust settled? Well, for now, it seems like the status quo on the streaming side is being maintained until the merger of HBO Max and Discovery+ is complete next summer (though most likely fully rolled out through 2023). In fact, WBD President & CEO David Zaslav emphasized that the DCU and original streaming content were both significant factors in WBD’s future, making the point that the company is looking to increase spending when it comes to the latter. But what about those projects that have been quietly floating around in limbo for the past two years? In this case, we’re talking about EP Greg Berlanti‘s DC’s Strange Adventures and Finn Wittrock-starring Green Lantern series. Well, according to filmmaker & multimedia talent Kevin Smith in the latest episode of Hollywood Babble-On,” things are not looking good. And considering he co-wrote and was set to direct an episode of DC’s Strange Adventures, he would be in a position to know.

Speaking with his co-host Ralph Garman about the controversy surrounding the recent run of HBO Max decision, Smith revealed that he and Eric Carrasco were tapped about two years ago to write an episode of “Strange Adventures” that would’ve focused on the secret origin of Bizarro and feature Jimmy Olsen & Perry White. Smith goes on the describe how the episode would play out (definitely worth a listen because it sounds great) and reveals that they wanted to approach Nicolas Cage to play Bizarro. During the conversation, we also learned that the series was meant to serve as an anthology series to introduce DCU characters that weren’t Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. The Warner Bros team in charge at the time was apparently willing to spend $16-$20M per episode and had creative team pairings working up scripts to submit to make up the first season. But then Smith dropped the hammer, revealing that he was given a heads-up by Carrasco (“‘Strange Adventures’ is officially dead”) that the project wasn’t moving forward. And then, though he admits he doesn’t know it for a fact, Smith is pretty much feeling that it’s the same thing for the “Green Lantern” series. Here’s a look at the clip: