Swamp Thing made its big debut on DC Universe on May 31, garnering a good bit of positive buzz about the live action series. But then on Wednesday, just days before the release of Swamp Thing‘s second episode, came shocking news. The series had been cancelled, leaving fans to wonder what had happened to kill the promising series. As it turns out, the fans aren’t alone in their questions, either. Series executive producer and Aquaman director James Wan has questions, too.
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In a post shared to Instagram on Saturday, Wan told his followers that he doesn’t fully know or understand what happened with the Swamp Thing cancellation, but that everyone should go watch and enjoy the 10 episodes of the first and possibly only season of the series. As he put it not only did the cast, crew, and those involved with the series work very hard on it, but “Swampy deserves it”. Check out the post below.
The confusion — or rather, the lack of concrete information about Swamp Thing‘s cancellation — is a little bit of a sticking point for fans. Earlier this year, it was reported that DC Universe had suspended the production on the series, shortening the first season from the planned 13 episodes to 10. At the time, rumors out of North Carolina — where the series was shot — alluded to the idea that the change was due to the DC Universe service itself being re-examined in light of WarnerMedia’s looming streaming service. At the time, that rumor was largely dismissed as conjecture, but it’s one that’s picked back up again with Swamp Thing’s cancellation.
Another reported reason for the cancellation of the new series involves tax breaks given to the production by North Carolina. It was initially reported that a mistake with the tax break paperwork had resulted in a dramatic reduction in the $40 million tax break that had allegedly been promised. The North Carolina Film Office later officially denied those claims. Other rumors noted that the issue that led to Swamp Thing‘s cancellation was, in fact, budget problems, but not problems related to tax breaks. The series is just expensive to make — roughly $8 million or so each episode as the season reportedly cost upwards of $85 million to produce for those 10 episodes. That’s a lot of money, money that likely wasn’t seeing a good return on investment.
Other reasons that have been rumored include WarnerMedia and AT&T executives just not liking several elements of Swamp Thing, including the creative direction and performances in addition to the budget.
Whatever the real reason the series was cancelled, fans have already sprang into action to do their part to attempt to save the series. Soon after the news of Swamp Thing‘s cancellation broke, the “#SaveSwampThing” hashtag on Twitter began trending in the hopes of saving the series, either by changing the direction of the show’s fate on DC Universe or by encouraging another network to welcome Swampy into their lineups — Warner-adjacent networks like The CW or HBO.
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