Swamp Thing executive producer James Wan has joined the chorus of voices criticizing the early cancellation of the DC Universe show. While there are fan campaigns aiming to reverse the decision, the apparent financial mess the production found itself in has likely ruled this out.
Earlier in the week, Wan took to Instagram to question why Swamp Thing won’t be coming back for a second season, writing:
Don’t really know or understand why #Swampthing was cancelled, but I can tell you this — all the cast and crew, and producing/writing team poured their hearts into this. Really proud of everyone’s hard work. Go watch episode 2, and immortalize these 10 episodes. Swampy deserves it.
There doesn’t seem to be too much consensus on exactly why Swamp Thing was so abruptly cancelled, despite the reports we recently shared of tax problems in North Carolina. The state’s Film Office is now denying that mistakes were made, and given Wan’s commentary, things aren’t much clearer for the show’s producers.
What’s more worrying is that the Swamp Thing experience will give DC and Warner Bros. pause when considering the future of ambitiously weird series like Doom Patrol. For now, though, this does look like an isolated decision, as DC are insisting that their streaming service is here to stay, saying the following in a statement released earlier this week:
“The full 10 episode season of Swamp Thing will continue to air on DC Universe with new episodes released weekly. There are no current plans for a Season 2. We appreciate there are questions as to why, but unfortunately we are not in a position to answer at this time.”
At least we still have the rest of Swamp Thing season 1 to enjoy, although it’ll be hard to deal with what will likely be an open-ended conclusion. Based on Wan’s remarks, the producers weren’t expecting their storyline to play out in such a shortened form, and the final results may leave fans even more frustrated.