Warner Bros. Television is continuing to suspend the overall deals of creatives as the WGA strike rages on.
Per Deadline, WBTV has suspended all remaining overall deals with showrunners for projects not already in development. The new batch includes Arrowverse creator Greg Berlanti and his Greg Berlanti Productions, Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence’s Doozer Productions, and Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International, who were all informed on Sept. 5 about the news. Since that time, J.J. Abrams‘ Bad Robot also saw its deal suspended.
The latest crop of suspensions joins John Wells (The West Wing), who saw his deal put on pause in June, and The Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre, whose deal was suspended in May as studios began the process.
According to the report, the deals haven’t been terminated and the high-profile ones will ideally see the suspension period added onto the end of their deals. For smaller production companies, however, the pauses could end the deals altogether.
Berlanti, who’s responsible for launching the Arrowverse and other DCTV projects like Superman & Lois, was set to launch a slew of shows under the deal. His most prominent, Dead Boy Detectives, likely won’t be affected as production on the Netflix adaptation of the Sandman spinoff comic is already underway.
Abrams, meanwhile, has already had troubles since his HBO Max deal was announced back in 2020. The writer/director was set to launch a Justice League Dark TV universe, but the shows, including a Madame Xanadu and Constantine series, were slowly put on hold or canceled. Abrams and Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Caped Crusader is still set to go at Prime Video.
It’s not just Warner Bros. that is suspending major TV deals, as Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin also saw his deal with HBO paused earlier in the summer despite several spinoffs of his hit universe being in the works.
