The Wall has fallen. Paradise is lost for good. At least, that’s the takeaway from a recent insider piece published by The Ankler, which reports that two recently-announced DCU television shows have ceased development. Waller would have starred Viola Davis, once again reprising her role as Amanda Waller, the hard-nosed government official who runs the Suicide Squad and the Creature Commandos. Paradise Lost would have been a Game of Thrones-style series set on Themyscira, the paradise island where Wonder Woman was born.
The news comes just ahead of the premiere of Lanterns, the ambitious HBO series that turns the cosmic Green Lantern franchise into a gritty True Detective series (we’ll be reviewing it here each week at Den of Geek). Given the skepticism about that show’s take, and the mixed reception given to Supergirl, some have wondered if James Gunn and Peter Safran were about to follow Marvel with diminishing superhero returns. But the fact that Paradise Lost and Waller have already been canceled shows that the DCU is avoiding the mistakes that the MCU made in television.
For those who don’t recall, the MCU actually had a great start on television. WandaVision felt like something truly unique, a show that would take advantage of TV as a medium and use it to play with the characters we grew to love in the movies. To be sure, some other shows have followed this path, including the delightful holiday romp that is Hawkeye and the recent buddy dramedy Wonder Man. But too many of Marvel’s Disney+ shows feel compulsory and unnecessary, diluting the brand with stories that would barely carry a movie, let alone a full season of television.
The worst offender here is, of course, Secret Invasion, the 2023 series that finally put Nick Fury in the center, but then proceeded to botch everything. From its decision to turn the shapeshifting aliens into regular humans in dull street wear, to its muddled and passively anti-immigrant politics, to its absolutely stupid final battle, Secret Invasion was less a story that the MCU needed to tell and was more a space-filler, something that exists because Marvel felt like they needed to put something on TV.
Secret Invasion didn’t just stink as a weekly television show. It put people off from other Marvel properties, as viewers thought that they needed understand the events of Secret Invasion before enjoying something like The Marvels, which picks up Nick Fury’s story. And they wouldn’t be wrong, as Secret Invasion had major ramifications for ongoing characters like Rhodey and Maria Hill. But instead of catching up with a bad TV show so they could be ready for the movie they really wanted to watch, most people just checked out of the MCU altogether.
When James Gunn started announcing TV shows in the first phase of the DCU, some wondered if he was failing to learn from Kevin Feige‘s example. We understood why Gunn wanted to make shows about Amazons who aren’t Wonder Woman or the time-traveling Justice Leaguer Booster Gold. Gunn’s love of deep-cut characters has always been one of his greatest strengths, and he had a whole new universe to fill out. But one couldn’t help but wonder if he was diluting the brand already.
The fact that Waller and Paradise Lost have been removed from the schedule—but that Booster Gold and Creature Commandos season 2 are still in production—restores some hope that he knows what he’s doing. Gunn has proven that he can use a TV show to tell a compelling story that engages viewers, even when working with Z-listers. Remember the applause break that Peacemaker got when he showed up in Superman? And with excitement mounting over Lanterns and the upcoming show about Jimmy Olsen and Gorilla Grodd, there’s at least some public interest.
If Gunn and Safran can keep focused on telling the best possible story—and cutting stories that aren’t working—then the DCU may stand where the MCU is falling, even if we lose paradise in the process.
Lanterns debuts at 9 p.m. on Sunday, August 16, on HBO and HBO Max.
