First up, the bad news: NBC has “Powerless” from its schedule. While the DC Comics comedy show has not yet officially been cancelled, this is the first sign that the axe is about to fall on the program. This will mark the second failed DC show on NBC, following their cancellation of “Constantine” a few years back. That series at least managed to finish out its season, something “Powerless” will not be doing now.
On the more positive end of the spectrum, Warner Bros. has a new live action series: “Titans“. The Teen Titans series will premiere on a new DC-centric digital service sometime in 2018. The show will be produced by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and…naturally…Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter. The service will be launched as part of Warner Bros. Digital Networks, which recently pushed out a Boomerang service centered around classic cartoons.
Speaking of cartoons, “Titans” will have some company on the service. “Young Justice: Outsiders“, the revived version of the popular “Young Justice” animated series, will also debut on the DC digital service. Together, they will comprise the launch projects for it.
If “Titans” sounds familiar, it should. The project was originally set up over at TNT. There it went through two different incarnations (one titled “Blackbirds”) before ultimately being cancelled during development. Berlanti and Schechter have reportedly retooled the concept for WB TV. The series will center on Dick Grayson (aka Nightwing), Raven, Starfire, and a few others. It is highly unlikely that it will have any connection to the DC TV Universe shows over on The CW or CW Seed.
This marks an interesting turn of events of DC Entertainment. While there are clearly no longer any open slots for shows over at The CW after the addition of the upcoming show “Black Lightning“, it’s interesting that they have foregone other outlets for this live action project. NBC clearly isn’t the place for such shows, but they’ve seen some success over at Fox with the likes of “Gotham” and “Lucifer“. One would think Fox or even Syfy (who were developing a Booster Gold series at one point) might have been a good fit for “Titans“.
Oh well. Much like CBS All-Access and its coming flagship series, “Star Trek: Discovery“, I am curious to see if any of these studio-driven digital subscription services can last. If they don’t, will these programs die with them or be sold to other networks?
