Warner Bros Discovery Cancels 'Batman: Caped Crusader' 'The Amazing World of Gumball' Movie and More Animation

The bad news for animation over at Warner Bros Discovery just keeps on coming. After scrapping the sequel to Scoob and purging multiple beloved animated series from HBO Max, the new management has turned their scrap-happy attention to animated projects in production.

Batman: Caped Crusader, the new series from Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm, Matt Reeves and JJ Abrams, is the most surprising show to face the axe. It's a pretty baffling decision- after all, it's hard to imagine that a Batman series would find it hard to find an audience. Particularly as this one seems to be harking back to the 90s series.

Also being scrapped are holiday specials Merry Little Batman, and Did I Do That to The Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story and movies The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical and The Amazing World Of Gumball: The Movie. All of the scrapped titles were Warner Bros Animation projects, except for Gumball which is in production at Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe.

With iconic brands like Batman and Looney Tunes getting scrapped it really feels like nobody is safe at HBO Max. There's an awful lot of animation in development at Warner Bros Discovery both for kids and adult audiences, and it now feels inevitable that a good proportion of them will never see the light of day. The company has already proven its disrespect for animators and artists through its recent actions. We suspect this won't be the end of it either.

There is at least a slither of hope here, however. Production is apparently moving forward on all six projects, with plans to try and sell them to alternative platforms. Could that also be the case with other shows that got removed last week? That remains to be seen- but we wouldn't hold our breath.

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