New Warner Bros. Deal With J.J. Abrams’ Might Signal Bad Time For His Black ‘Superman’ Movie in Development

Back in June 2019, J.J. Abrams struck a huge deal with Warner Bros. worth $500 million, one of the biggest in Hollywood at the time. The deal allowed Abrams to not only create content but also recruit and mentor new talent through his Bad Robot production company.

The idea was for him to become a mogul, with his company becoming a mini-studio, incubating fresh voices. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, were set to lead the charge.

However, as of 2024, the deal has not played out as Warner Bros. might have hoped, Variety reports. While Abrams’ team had high ambitions, they struggled to meet financial and output targets. Bad Robot’s efforts, like setting deals with writers and producers such as Angela Robinson, Jessie Nelson, and LaToya Morgan, did not bear much fruit.

Some of the planned projects, like Robinson’s Madame X and Thomason’s Overlook, were scrapped by HBO Max, while other projects had underwhelming results. The company even spent millions without generating the expected returns. For example, Morgan’s series Duster, which was greenlit in 2020, won’t even premiere until 2025, despite a hefty price tag.

In the world of Hollywood production deals, things are tightening up. Abrams’ previously massive $500 million deal has now been replaced with a more modest one, signaling the end of an era where nine-figure deals were common. The industry is facing economic pressures, with layoffs, mounting debts, and rising costs.

“This is now a meat-and-potatoes economy,” said Stephen Galloway, a professor at Chapman University. Studios like Warner Bros. are now trimming expenses, and big talent deals, like Abrams’, are among the things being re-evaluated.

Abrams’ deal had aimed to position him as a creative mogul, similar to Bob Iger. However, things haven’t worked out that way. Abrams did not produce the massive hits that Warner Bros. hoped for.

On the TV front, Bad Robot’s Constantine series based on the DC character was canceled, and the long-discussed Black Superman film, which was supposed to be written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is in a state of limbo. Other projects, like the 1980s-set thriller Flowervale Street, may generate interest, but they aren’t the tentpole hits Warner Bros. envisioned when they signed Abrams.

Beyond that, the wider landscape of the entertainment industry has also faced challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic and labor strikes in 2023 delayed many productions, leaving studios with fewer options to generate returns.

CEOs like Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav are under pressure from stockholders to reduce costs, and talent deals have become a target for cutbacks.

A major symbol of the end of the Abrams deal’s glory days was when HBO canceled his $200 million series Demimonde in 2022, citing budget concerns. When it was shopped to other streaming services, no one took the bait. “The Bad Robot deal was a massive coronation of J.J.,” said a veteran producer. “But the question is, what did Warner Bros. really get out of it?”

In short, J.J. Abrams’ massive deal with Warner Bros. has not delivered the big hits the studio had hoped for. The combination of tough economic realities, stalled productions, and changing market conditions has led to the downfall of what seemed like an ambitious, lucrative partnership. Warner Bros. is now quietly moving on from the extravagant era of talent deals.

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