DC Studios and HBO Cancel Live-Action Booster Gold Series

The live-action adaptation of the Dan Jurgens-created comic character has officially hit a major speedbump and setback on the road to becoming a reality. Jenkins, who created the series Our Flag Means Death, announced the cancellation on Threads, writing plainly, My Booster Gold won’t be moving forward.

The decision brings a sudden halt to a project that had traveled a complicated developmental road since DC Studios first unveiled it during its initial slate announcement in 2023. A year ago at Comic-Con, Deadline reported that Jenkins was attached to write the pilot script and that the plan was for him to show-run the series as well if the pilot was given a series order.

From Promising Development Updates to a Sudden Cancellation

For a long time after the initial announcement, things on the development side had gotten quiet—at least, publicly. Public updates regarding the project had been sparse, prompting rumors earlier in the year that both Booster Gold and Paradise Lost had been canceled. In March, Jenkins responded on social media to reports that he had departed the project, posting, As far as I know, it's still in the pipeline.

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Those rumors drew a sharp rebuttal from DC Studios co-CEO and writer/director James Gunn, who addressed the status of both series directly in April when asked if Booster Gold was still in development. Gunn stated that BG is in development. PL is in extreme development, pushing back against the cancellation talk and offering a very different picture as recently as April.

Momentum appeared to pick up in June when Jenkins shared an optimistic update on BlueSky. Jenkins announced that he had turned in his completed pilot script, writing, Just handed the Booster Gold pilot in. I love it. One of my favorite pilot scripts, punctuating the post with a blue heart and a gold heart.

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Just weeks later, however, that optimism evaporated when Jenkins had some bad news to share on social media on Friday. Jenkins delivered the final word on the series’ fate by invoking similar frustration recently voiced by actor Mahershala Ali regarding Marvel Studios and its stalled Blade reboot. Ali told GQ that Marvel had kept him under contract with billions of dollars without moving forward, telling the outlet, For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would’ve done it. So I have to move on, and I have moved on. Ali continued, Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie. Ali also noted, I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question.

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“Can’t improve on Mahershala’s lovely statement so I’ll just apply it here as well.”

David Jenkins

What the Comics Character Lost in Translation

The canceled series was set to adapt the DC Comics character created by Dan Jurgens, with the comic centered on Michael Jon “Booster” Carter. In the source material, Carter is a member of the Justice League born in Gotham City who attends university on a football scholarship. He is expelled for gambling and becomes a superhero, although he continues to irritate others with his obsession with fame and wealth. His nickname came via Ronald Reagan after he saved the former POTUS.

The cancellation leaves the live-action future of the hero uncertain as DC Studios continues shaping its broader television and film slate, marking a notable departure from the studio’s initial 2023 announcements.