WB’s Change To The CW Killed Aquaman Pilot Says Smallville Creator
Smallville creator Miles Millar says that the Aquaman pilot was axed due to the merger of The CW and one executive not wanting more superhero series.
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Smallville’s creator reveals the network change from The WB to The CW is what killed the planned Aquaman pilot. In season 5, episode 4 of Smallville titled “Aqua,” the character of Arthur Curry (Alan Ritchson) was introduced to audiences. The episode was a hit and became the highest-rated episode of the season, which inspired Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough to consider an Aquaman series.
Since the series was not considered a spinoff of Smallville but its own separate series, Ritchson was not asked to return and instead, Justin Hartley was cast as Aquaman. The pilot was filmed but was passed over by The CW, the new network that would broadcast Smallville. It was released on iTunes and reached the number one spot on the list of most downloaded TV shows on the digital store’s list, and it held that spot for over a week after its July 24, 2006 drop. The Aquaman pilot has since been made available online to the public through various services.
In a recent video released by IGN celebrating the 20th anniversary of Smallville, the series co-creator, Miles Millar, revealed that the planned Aquaman pilot was scrapped when the WB network merged with UPN to form The CW. The creators were in the middle of production on Aquaman when they got the news about the network change. Millar reveals that one executive, in particular, did not want The CW to be making more superhero series. Millar said:
“All our executives who were hugely supportive of the show were suddenly gone and we have a new executive who literally says ‘were the Gossip Girl network I don’t want anything to do with superheroes’ and so Aquaman you know should have been a show that was on the air and was you know would have gone and I think would have been a great companion to Smallville”
While not named in the interview, the executive in question is likely Dawn Ostroff, who was President of The CW from 2006 to 2011. Aquaman would never make it past the pilot stage and was one of many superhero series like David E. Kelly’s Wonder Woman pilot for NBC that struggled to take off in the mid-2000s despite the boom of the superhero genre on film. However, it was due to his work on the Aquaman pilot that Justin Hartley would join the cast of Smallville as Oliver Queen, a.k.a. The Green Arrow in season 6, which was the first season of the series that aired on The CW. Now, Aquaman is bigger than he has ever been before, as the star of a $1 billion grossing film with a highly anticipated sequel on the way and an animated series on HBO Max.
The CW also changed its stance on superhero series since the Aquaman pilot. During Smallville’s run on The CW, it was the only superhero series on the network while it focused on teenage-centric dramas like Gossip Girl, 90210, and The Vampire Diaries. In 2011, after Ostroff left the network and Smallville finished its run, the network shifted towards superhero series and has become a staple of the network. The following year, in 2012, Arrow premiered and launched an entire shared universe that would go on to include The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning, and Superman & Lois.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/aquaman-pilot-show-wb-cw-change-cancelled-details/