Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly ‘frustrated’ by JJ Abrams’ lack of DC projects

The Warner Bros. merger. With Discovery over, CEO David Zaslav takes a closer look at the company’s films and series in development. Many of these projects are believed to come from JJ Abrams, whose production company Bad Robot signed an overall $250 million deal with Warner in 2019. Abrams is working on original series such as Demimonde and Subject to change for HBO Max, and also has a handful of DC properties in development. However, a new report from The Hollywood Reporter claims that Warner Bros. Discovery expresses frustration with the lack of content the Bad Robot deal has produced so far.

Shows such as Constantine, Mrs Xand animation Batman: Crusader Caped are all in the works from Abrams, but production updates have been sparse or non-existent. In reality, Constantine and Mrs X haven’t even been officially announced though Warner has apparently seen scripts for episodes of both. Batman: Crusader Caped was announced last year, but much like Constantine and Mrs Xthere is no timetable on when the spiritual successor of Batman: The Animated Series will reach HBO Max. Sources at The Hollywood Reporter say the frustration with WBD is that Abrams has claimed a handful of different DC characters, but has nothing to show for it. All of these projects are in production limbo, which apparently doesn’t sit well with Zaslav and the WBD braintrust.

JJ Abrams Tries To Build A Dark Justice League Universe

Abrams’ ongoing DC projects are set to create a Justice League Dark universe on HBO Max. A movie starring supernatural DC characters like John Constantine, Zatanna, Swamp Thing and more has been in development for years, and it looks like the concept has carried over to the streaming world. The bad robots Constantine the series is expected to be a reboot of the classic character, sharing no connection with the iteration seen through Arrow and Legends of tomorrow. Mrs X will center around Madame Xanadu, a witch whose comic origins date back to the late 1970s. Other Justice League Dark projects could stem from this, but the first two series need to kick off first…when that happens.

Zaslav intends to maximize the potential of the DC characters that WBD has under his control, so it’s no surprise that he’d like to see real development on the Abrams projects. The new CEO is not only trying to keep content fresh on HBO Max to keep up with the myriad other streamers, but also being a contender in the superhero space with Disney and Marvel Studios. Having a company as reputable as Bad Robot working on different DC projects is certainly a coup for Zaslav, but the deal with Abrams won’t pay off until the series sees the light of day. Zaslav has already removed an in-development DC property from WBD’s production list (The Wonder Twins)and more may be added to this list if Bad Robot does not produce in a timely manner.

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