Bad news for DC FanDome fans: This year’s convention has been canceled.
Created in 2020 as a virtual convention, DC FanDome highlights all DC content including movies, video games, television series and comic books with stars and creatives appearing in online panels to discuss their projects.
Warner Bros. Discovery is scrapping this year’s FanDome as San Diego Comic-Con returned to in-person activities this summer and New York Comic Con is still planning to do the same from October 6-9.
Warner Bros. Discovery svp of communications Blake Bryant explained the company’s reason for shelving this year’s event. saying, “With the return to in-person events and WBD’s return to the Comic Cons, we decided to forgo FanDome this year to see the response to live events. San Diego was massive for us. No decisions made for next year on FanDome.”
This announcement comes on the heels of some turbulent times at Warner Bros. Discovery and its DC franchise. There was the abrupt cancellation of the nearly completed $90 million feature film Batgirl, a move which left fans in a social media uproar. Then came the news that HBO Max had quietly removed films and tv programs from its streaming library, including 20 HBO Max original series as well as 200 episodes of Sesame Street.
The highly anticipated animated series Batman: Caped Crusader and five other animated projects were also canceled by HBO Max, which is in line with Warner Bros. Discovery’s strategy to divest from children and family programming.
Last month, Casey Bloys, chief content officer for HBO Max laid off about 14% of his workforce under the mandate of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to find $3 billion in savings.
On the bright side, the fourth season renewal of Harley Quinn and the return of the critically acclaimed series Peacemaker should make viewers happy. The streamer’s live-action Green Lantern series from Berlanti and The Batman prequel The Penguin are both “moving along, according to Deadline. And two Justice League Dark projects from Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, featuring John Constantine and Madame Xanadu, remain in active development, per Variety.