The CW won’t commit to a superhero-free future, renews Superman & Lois
But Gotham Knights has been canceled, so there are still fewer superhero shows than before
The CW killed its in-house superhero universe with the recent series finale of The Flash, but the network—or, rather, its new corporate owners at Nexstar—aren’t willing to commit to a completely superhero-free future just yet (one where Jesus and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund reign supreme). That being said, the future will still have fewer superheroes than there used to be.
This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says The CW has renewed All American: Homecoming (a show that is not about superheroes) and Superman & Lois, but it has decided not to renew freshman superhero show Gotham Knights—the one about Batman’s son, but not any of the canonical Batman sons or Robins from the comics, and also it had nothing to do with the video game of the same name. (It’s a wonder that this thing couldn’t find an audience.) Gotham Knights still has a couple of episodes to air before coming to an end, but then it will be formally entered into the archives of forgettable DC Comics TV shows alongside NBC’s Powerless and The WB’s Birds Of Prey.
THR notes that Gotham Knights got fewer viewers than Superman & Lois but was “also considerably less expensive to make,” so the fact that it got the axe and Superman & Lois didn’t is somewhat surprising, given everything we’ve seen from Nexstar CW up until this point. Then again, both Superman & Lois and All American: Homecoming are reportedly getting their budgets slashed for these new seasons, with the former dropping to 10 episodes (from 13) and the latter dropping to 13 (from 15). Maybe The CW is banking on existing fans sticking around for those shows even if Smallville suddenly looks even smaller and Homecoming can’t afford any actual sports equipment.