Warner Bros. Turned Down Kevin Smith’s DC Comics Pitch Because It Was Too Dark

In the entertainment business for every one thing that makes it to print or screen, there are countless others that simply don’t, either not surviving the development process or just outright being rejected in idea form. Now, Kevin Smith has revealed one of his own projects that was rejected. During a recent episode of his Fatman Beyond podcast, Smith spoke about how Warner Bros. turned down one of his DC pitches, saying that his idea was too dark.

During the episode, Smith said that he had recently pitched something that one aspect of the company really loved, but they had to get clearance from another part of the company in order for it to move forward. It was in that secondary clearance where things fell apart.

“I had that recently where we pitched a thing, and first I pitched it at like one place and they were like ‘holy f-ck we love this’ and I was like thanks and they’re like ‘we want to do this instantly and we’re gonna find out like if the character is spoken for somewhere else in the company.’ And then they came back ‘well it is spoken for someplace else in the company, but they don’t have plans for it and they’re very excited to hear your plans.’ So I was like right on and they were like ‘look, if they say yeah, it’s happening.’ And you hear that all the time in this business and sh-t. And we pitched and the people that we pitched to were like ‘it’s dark’ and I was like ‘well, I mean, you know but it’s also funny’ and they’re like ‘but it’s dark’ and so they didn’t go for it. And it f-cking died there. So rather than it, and it was for another thing that somebody else owned, but I have brought enough to it where I was like ‘this will totally work without their f-cking thing’.

Smith went on to explain that he has since turned that idea into a comic book, changing out the various elements related to the Warner Bros. intellectual property. He also explained that the property that he was pitching was actually a project involving DC Comics’ The Question. This isn’t the first time Smith has said he’s wanted to do something with The Question. Back in 2019, Smith was asked what Marvel or DC property he’d want to adapt as a Netflix series and he said at that time he’d love to do something with The Question. This time around, however, Smith said he got closer than he ever had, but he also said that the decision to take his idea and apply it to something else without DC was inspired by Robert Kirkman.

“It got to that point where I was like I’m f-cking tired after 20 years of trying to make The Question, just go make your own f-cking thing. You know where I got that? Robert Kirkman. On our own show, he talked about like working at Marvel and he was like ‘look, it was fun but I bolted because I’m like why am I giving them all my best ideas just because I love these characters so much, it’s like I’m hostage to my nostalgia. All I do is cross the street, put new names on these stories and they’re mine.’ And I was like, that’s f-cking smart man. So that’s what we did as well.”

What do you think about Smith having a The Question project rejected by Warner Bros. for being too dark? Let us know in the comments.