Titans and Doom Patrol both ending on HBO Max with their next batch of episodes
Both Titansand Doom Patrolwill wrap up their HBO Max runs with the upcoming second half of their fourth seasons
HBO Max might be done cancelling shows en masse as part of complicated tax shenanigans, but that doesn’t mean it’s, you know, done canceling shows. Specifically, the streamer announced today that the next half-seasons of its two live-action superhero shows, Titans and Doom Patrol, will now be each show’s last, with both series wrapping up with the ends of their fourth seasons.
Both shows are currently in the middle of said fourth seasons right now, having been given the old “air the seasons in two blocks” treatment by the streamer. The upshot, though, is that both shows, per Deadline, will have enough time to craft actual endings for their misfit superheroes, allowing each series to come to something like a satisfying conclusion.
If we’re being honest, we’re more surprised by Doom Patrol ending than Titans; if nothing else, we would have expected HBO Max to try to capitalize a bit more on series star Brendan Fraser’s recent return to the limelight. (Fraser is, of course, up for Best Actor at the Oscars this year for The Whale.) Still, the fact is that both of these shows have been well-regarded—minus a bit of “Fuck Batman” mockery in the case of Titans’ early run—by critics, and, that by the standards of streaming TV at this point, four seasons is positively geriatric.
Especially since both shows already survived one great purge: Both Titans and Doom Patrol originated on the new highly defunct DC Universe streaming service, making the transition—along with Harley Quinn, now the last supervillain standing of the bunch—when the service eventually folded.
Titans, focused on a TV-friendly version of DC Comics’ Teen Titans, stars Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop, Teagan Craft, and Ryan Potter. Doom Patrol, meanwhile, stars Fraser as the voice of Cliff “Robotman” Steele, plus Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Matt Bomer, and Timothy Dalton. Both series were co-created by DC Comics TV adaptation mastermind Greg Berlanti, whose long association with Warner Bros. Discovery was recently extended with a massive new deal.