By Joe Otterson, Matt Donnelly
John Nacion/Variety How the mighty Robot has faltered.
J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production banner is slimming down operations and relocating to New York after more than 20 years in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. The trimming of the sails comes amid a particularly rocky run for Bad Robot, with several ambitious projects featuring high-wattage talent getting a hard pass or stuck in development hell. Most recently, those have included a “Justice League Dark” series that would have tied in with shows built around DC characters; “Overlook,” a prequel to “The Shining”; and the crime drama “Duster.” Abrams also got a series order at HBO Max in 2021 for the thriller “Subject to Change.” Of those projects, only “Duster” made it to air for one season. Bad Robot also produced the animated series “Batman: Caped Crusader,” which was set up at HBO Max before being scrapped and later sold to Amazon. Then there was the planned big-budget fantasy vehicle for HBO, “Demimonde,” that had a series order and Danielle Deadwyler attached. But by the end of 2022 it was axed amid David Zaslav’s cost-cutting campaign at Warner Bros. and HBO.
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