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[Rumor] DC Universe 'Swamp Thing' halts production early; future of service could be under evaluation

Zulith

Zulith

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Oct 25, 2017
4,738
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*EDIT* Syfy article with the latest info. Or scroll down for the initial break:

According to a local news outlet in Wilmington, North Carolina, crew members on DC's 'Swamp Thing' were informed they will be wrapping things up a bit early.

While originally scheduled to film 13 episodes through May in Wilmington, the show will now wrap at just 10 episodes with a new ending currently being written. The outlet also says that WB may be shutting down production early to evaluate the future of the DC streaming service, DC Universe. This does seem like speculation though. We have reached out to WB for comment. It is unclear how this affects other DC Universe shows in production.
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Well this is concerning. I enjoyed Titans Season 1, and although I haven't dug into Doom Patrol yet, I've been greatly anticipating Swamp Thing. It's also a bit worrying that it's supposed to premiere in late May yet we don't even have a teaser trailer yet. Not even a teaser image of Swampy to whet our appetites.

Even if they are cutting out a few episodes of Swamp Thing, it's far too early to start digging the entire service's grave. Though with Disney+ and Apple+ offerings looking very enticing alongside the current competition from Netflix & co., they have some real struggles ahead.

Still breaking so the details on this story could well change. Sources:
https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20190416/breaking-swamp-thing-to-shut-down-production-early

http://www.wect.com/2019/04/17/sources-swamp-thing-shut-down-production-early/

*edit* some updates coming in through social media and such:

Pandora012 said:
So it turns out that the season shortening is due to creative differences.

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Rvaan said:
That's the plan eventually.
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Boxy Brown

Boxy Brown

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Oct 27, 2017
8,503
That "future of the service under evaluation" is just baseless speculation and should not be taken seriously
 
Gundam

Gundam

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Oct 25, 2017
12,801
Galaxy Brain: Fold all of WB's stuff into a unified service - CW, Cartoon Network/Boomerang/Adult Swim, DC, etc.
 
LuisGarcia

LuisGarcia

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
3,478
Not sure I buy this. Maybe Swamp Thing halted production early but I don't think it means they are revaluating their streaming service. Their first two shows have been hits.
 
Mariolee

Mariolee

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,305
Gonna wait until main trade sources before speculating they're changing up the service, but if this means I get less Doom Patrol in the future there will be hell to raise.
 
MGPanda

MGPanda

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Feb 25, 2018
2,476
Haven't Titans and Young Justice Outsiders been two of the most relevant shows of the 2018/2019 season? Not buying this at all.
 
Razgriz-Specter

Razgriz-Specter

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Oct 25, 2017
29,428
Gundam said:
Galaxy Brain: Fold all of WB's stuff into a unified service - CW, Cartoon Network/Boomerang/Adult Swim, DC, etc.
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I do think that is coming but I doubt CW will be involved besides older stuff since CBS owns 50%.

Hell i'd even expect WB would try to do a legitimate Batman or Superman tv series along with something Potter related to launch it
If Amazon didn't already have Lord of the Rings I could see all 3.
 
Rosenkrantz

Rosenkrantz

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Jan 17, 2018
4,915
Do we have numbers of how Titans and Doom Patrol perform?

I don't think WB reevaluating anything unless they're going forward with WB+ and want to integrate DCU in it.
 
kurahador

kurahador

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Oct 28, 2017
17,519
Uhh...that was quick. Surely they would give the streaming service at least 3 years first before declaring it as failure.
 

rude

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Oct 25, 2017
12,812
A guy on /co/ who posted some proof that he works on Doom Patrol said that pre-production for Season 2 starts in July. So idk.

Also Titans had a whole Starfire-centric episode that was cut and story beats throughout the season were edited and placed in different orders than originally planned.
 
Kirblar

Kirblar

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Oct 25, 2017
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"Future of the service" could be a producer's way of avoiding saying "the show sucks and they're pulling the plug."
 
Boxy Brown

Boxy Brown

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Oct 27, 2017
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Series apparently already cost 80 million as of the 10 episodes. I could see WB pumping the breaks early to stopping it from ballooning anymore.
 

rude

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Oct 25, 2017
12,812
Ross62 said:
Series apparently already cost 80 million as of the 10 episodes. I could see WB pumping the breaks early to stopping it from ballooning anymore.
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I didn't know that, but it makes sense. It'd pretty much have to be the most expensive show they've made thus far. Titans is a glorified CW show so it's obviously relatively cheap, Doom Patrol has a lot of intricate costuming and set design and a bit of CGI in every episode, and now this would need to be full of CGI unless they went practical somehow.
 
Manu

Manu

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UUrcK1F.jpg
 
Vic_Viper

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You would think that they understood going in that they were going to be in for the long haul to get the numbers. They launched the service with only the 1 new show. I dont buy it, unless they were super short sighted.

I hope Swamp Thing doesnt feel like it ends like Titans did though. I get wanting to do shorter seasons after the complaints for the Marvel Netflix shows, but this sounds like it was planned as a 13 episode story being cut short into 10.
 
Blader

Blader

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Oct 27, 2017
26,601
Gundam said:
Galaxy Brain: Fold all of WB's stuff into a unified service - CW, Cartoon Network/Boomerang/Adult Swim, DC, etc.
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I know WB has that WarnerMedia service they're unveiling later this year but I figured that was just movies. If they fold all of their TV into it though, it might actually be a worthwhile app.
 
jph139

jph139

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Didn't they just announce a whole slate of shows like... a month or two ago? Not that it's impossible to swerve that soon, but still. I figure they'd give the service more than ~6 months to find its footing.

I'm guessing this is more a Swamp Thing problem than anything else.
 
BWoog

BWoog

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Oct 27, 2017
38,246
It's crazy expensive for what is offered and it certainly doesn't help that Disney + revealed its a dollar cheaper.
 
Sketchsanchez

Sketchsanchez

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I hope they don't kill the service.

While I've enjoyed all the shows, I find myself loving the comic collection a hell of a lot.
 
Pandora012

Pandora012

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Oct 25, 2017
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BWoog said:
It's crazy expensive for what is offered and it certainly doesn't help that Disney + revealed its a dollar cheaper.
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It's an interesting situation. The real competitor is Marvels comic book service that only has comics no shows or movies. However DC is a hybrid so it's also competing with Disney + and Marvels comic subscription. I wonder if WB will stay this course and offer it's other media CN, Boomerang, HannaBarbara, etc separately. Or fold DC universe into it's wider WB service.
 
Illusion

Illusion

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Oct 27, 2017
8,407
Having been subscribed for DC Universe, to me Titans & Doom Patrol are good but not great or the best. I'm only here for Young Justice and I'd much rather just cancel after all the episodes have been uploaded, but Doom Patrol has me somewhat hooked to stick around. The service is too expensive for what it offers, although they are continuing to update comics, this service has more value in subscribing after a long term, rather than subscribing to day 1.

It's a well-built service for sure, it's just the target audience is incredibly small, and the wider public isn't interested in the comic aspect of the service, only the shows.
 

Deleted member 52442

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I honestly can't see the DC service doing that well vs Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu. Seems extremely niche.

Young Justice is the only show I'm interested in on it.
 
Bus-TEE

Bus-TEE

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Nov 20, 2017
4,656
Eh.

Swamp Thing will be fine.

The DC Universe app (likely absorbed into the WarnerMedia service) will be fine.

The Disney+ app will be fine.

It will all be fine.
 
BDS

BDS

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Oct 25, 2017
13,845
DC Universe is a confusing value proposition. On paper, it appears to be a good value. You get DC's back catalogue plus some older movies and shows and new ones as well. But the problem is that movies/shows and comics are actually two entirely different types of products aimed at different consumer groups and demographics, but they're part of the same service and there's no way to pay for only one or the other. In a world where a la carte is now the main business model for consumer services, what looks like a good value proposition actually comes off like DC forcing you to pay "extra" for something you may not want.

This means that, paradoxically, a person might actually be willing to spend $8 a month on a comic service or $8 a month on a TV show service but not $8 a month on both, because there's a psychological voice in their head going "How much would I be saving if I didn't have to pay for the comics (or TV shows) I don't want?"

This is the sort of multidimensional thing you have to consider in business. People are not rational actors and don't make purchase decisions rationally. DC Universe should have been two seperate services at a $5-6 price point each.

Ross62 said:
I guess you don't pay for MU then
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A yearly subscription to Marvel Unlimited is actually only $5.80 a month. It's only $10 if you pay monthly which is clearly not a good bargain.
 
Rvaan

Rvaan

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Oct 25, 2017
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BDS said:
DC Universe is a confusing value proposition. On paper, it appears to be a good value. You get DC's back catalogue plus some older movies and shows and new ones as well. But the problem is that movies/shows and comics are actually two entirely different types of products aimed at different consumer groups and demographics, but they're part of the same service and there's no way to pay for only one or the other. In a world where a la carte is now the main business model for consumer services, what looks like a good value proposition actually comes off like DC forcing you to pay "extra" for something you may not want.

This means that, paradoxically, a person might actually be willing to spend $8 a month on a comic service or $8 a month on a TV show service but not $8 a month on both, because there's a psychological voice in their head going "How much would I be saving if I didn't have to pay for the comics (or TV shows) I don't want?"

This is the sort of multidimensional thing you have to consider in business. People are not rational actors and don't make purchase decisions rationally. DC Universe should have been two seperate services at a $5-6 price point each.



A yearly subscription to Marvel Unlimited is actually only $5.80 a month. It's only $10 if you pay monthly which is clearly not a good bargain.
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There was also the issue of the comic selection orginally being curated which hurt it at the start. They should have began with the MU method of everything up to a point being available.
 
Pandora012

Pandora012

Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
5,495
BDS said:
DC Universe is a confusing value proposition. On paper, it appears to be a good value. You get DC's back catalogue plus some older movies and shows and new ones as well. But the problem is that movies/shows and comics are actually two entirely different types of products aimed at different consumer groups and demographics, but they're part of the same service and there's no way to pay for only one or the other. In a world where a la carte is now the main business model for consumer services, what looks like a good value proposition actually comes off like DC forcing you to pay "extra" for something you may not want.

This means that, paradoxically, a person might actually be willing to spend $8 a month on a comic service or $8 a month on a TV show service but not $8 a month on both, because there's a psychological voice in their head going "How much would I be saving if I didn't have to pay for the comics (or TV shows) I don't want?"

This is the sort of multidimensional thing you have to consider in business. People are not rational actors and don't make purchase decisions rationally. DC Universe should have been two seperate services at a $5-6 price point each.



A yearly subscription to Marvel Unlimited is actually only $5.80 a month. It's only $10 if you pay monthly which is clearly not a good bargain.
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If you regularly read comics....why wouldn't you watch the shows associated with those comics? Besides DC tv/animation is nowhere near enough to have its own service. It makes sense why they'd roll the comics and shows together.
 
Boxy Brown

Boxy Brown

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Rvaan said:
There was also the issue of the comic selection orginally being curated which hurt it at the start. They should have began with the MU method of everything up to a point being available.
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Eh, DC would still like to maintain a healthy relationship with retailers which is why they were reluctant at the start. Even now, they won't put imprints(except for special exceptions) on DCU because of the retailer relation.
 
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