Two Projects Are Reportedly Dead at DC Studios, Leaving the DCU’s Slate Thinner Than Ever

James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebuild of the DC Universe launched back in January 2023 with a sweeping, ambitious slate of five interconnected TV series and five films under the “Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters” banner. That announcement generated enormous excitement at the time, promising a tightly woven universe spanning everything from Peacemaker’s world to the mythic island of Themyscira.

Nearly four years later, that original TV lineup has quietly become a story of survival rather than expansion. Only two of the five announced series, ‘Creature Commandos’ and ‘Lanterns,’ have actually made it to screens, while ‘Booster Gold’ has spent years stuck in development limbo and recently lost its showrunner entirely.

Now the DCU’s television ambitions have taken another significant hit. According to a new report from The Ankler, both ‘Waller’ and ‘Paradise Lost’ are no longer moving forward at DC Studios, effectively ending two of the franchise’s most anticipated spinoff series before either one made it to production.

‘Waller‘ was originally set to bring Viola Davis back as former A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller, a character she’s played across both David Ayer’s and Gunn’s ‘Suicide Squad’ films. The series was initially designed to bridge the gap between the first and second seasons of ‘Peacemaker,’ though persistent script difficulties eventually forced ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 to arrive first, leaving ‘Waller’ to be reworked into a sequel instead.

‘Paradise Lost,’ meanwhile, was pitched as a sprawling, ‘Game of Thrones’-style story set on Themyscira, exploring the political intrigue and darker undercurrents of the all-female Amazonian society that predates Wonder Woman’s own origin. As of earlier this summer, Kira Snyder and Janet Lin were reportedly still attached to the project, making its sudden collapse all the more surprising to fans who had assumed it remained on track.

Beyond scrapping those two projects, The Ankler’s report also revealed that DC Studios and HBO recently heard and rejected pitches for standalone series centered on Batman villains Catwoman and Poison Ivy, signaling a broader tightening of what gets greenlit under the current DC leadership. Reps for DC Studios declined to comment on the report when reached by other outlets covering the story.

The timing of these cancellations has also drawn scrutiny given the recent box office performance of ‘Supergirl,’ which reportedly grossed just $126.25 million worldwide, a result some industry observers believe may have factored into DC Studios’ willingness to pull back on ambitious character-driven spinoffs that lack a built-in theatrical anchor.

With ‘Waller’ and ‘Paradise Lost’ now effectively dead, ‘Booster Gold’ stands as the only original Chapter 1 series still technically alive, though it remains without a writer after David Jenkins, who wrote and was set to showrun the project, announced in July that his script would not be moving forward. That leaves DC Studios searching for a new creative direction on the project from scratch.

The news arrives just days before ‘Lanterns,’ starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, premieres on HBO Max on August 16, marking the third live-action DCU series to actually reach audiences under Gunn and Safran’s leadership. For a slate that once promised five interconnected series alongside its film lineup, the current television landscape at DC Studios looks considerably leaner than what fans were originally promised.

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