When James Gunn and Peter Safran announced that they were taking over Warner Bros.’ flagging DC Comics film and TV brands back in 2022, they followed it with what was, in hindsight, a pretty pie-in-the-sky slate of projects they were intending to pursue. True, some of those plans—which saw Gunn make some bold swings at demonstrating that his DC Studios could operate outside the rigid genre lines of “the superhero movie”—have since come to fruition, including Gunn’s own Superman and Creature Commandos, “cop show with magic space powers” Lanterns, and James Watkin’s upcoming “Batman villain as horror creature” feature Clayface. But several more have fallen by the wayside or just been kind of ignored since DC rolled out that initial massive slate, including David Jenkins’ Booster Gold TV show.
Now, the Our Flag Means Death creator has confirmed that his version of the series is dead, writing a message on Threads in which he compared his show’s situation to Mahershala’s recent statements that, if Marvel really wanted to make his Blade movie, they would have found a way to do it by now. “My Booster Gold won’t be moving forward,” Jenkins wrote, alongside a message quoting Ali’s statement. “Can’t improve on Mahershala’s lovely statement so I’ll just apply it here as well.” (Possibly not coincidentally, the most recent previous post on Jenkins’ account was a commentary on the recent cancelation of Marvel’s Wonder Man, in which he remarked, “I’ve lost the thread. Don’t understand the objective of a streamer anymore I guess.”)
Booster Gold, slated for release on HBO Max, was always going to be a pretty weird one: The character has existed primarily on the comedic side of the DC Comics Universe ever since debuting in the 1980s, making his most prominent early appearances in a run of Justice League comics where the team was treated more like sitcom characters than heroic crimefighters. Creators have tried to do more dramatic things with his basic hook over the years—as a disgraced sports star from the far future, who travels back to our time to get rich and famous fighting bad guys with stolen future-tech, he’s rife with underdog potential—but Booster’s always been more of a cult favorite than an A-lister. (Not unlike his best friend, Ted “Blue Beetle” Kord, whose only cinematic appearance to date has been as a backstory presence in 2023’s Blue Beetle.) That being said, “Time-traveling dope tries to get rich with future knowledge” is the kind of premise we can see Jenkins making a meal out of, which makes it a shame to see his version of the project die.
Interestingly, The Wrap reports that this will not be the actual end of the Booster Gold TV property, writing that “The series will still move forward at DC Studios with a new creative team.” Absolutely no details about that new creative team, or who might actually wind up playing Booster, have been revealed.
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