HBO has passed on the V for Vendetta series script from writer Pete Jackson, according to Jeff Sneider, meaning the DC adaptation James Gunn and Peter Safran were executive producing has stalled out just eight months after it was announced.
“I’m now told that HBO has passed on Jackson’s script,” Sneider writes in his InSneider newsletter.
Per the report, Jackson turned in a period-themed take on the material, while HBO wanted to see a more modern spin on a political anarchist. An HBO insider for Sneider adds that the project isn’t necessarily dead, as it could still be retooled with a different writer somewhere down the line.
Nothing here is official — HBO and DC Studios aren’t commenting — but a script getting bounced back is exactly the kind of thing that quietly kills a project in this climate.
Announced Just Eight Months Ago
The series was announced back in November, with Variety first reporting that Jackson — the BAFTA-nominated writer of Somewhere Boy — would pen the adaptation of the Alan Moore and David Lloyd classic, with Gunn and Safran executive producing alongside Ben Stephenson and Leanne Klein for Warner Bros. Television.
The show was expected to be a standalone project outside Gunn’s DCU.
Now the only V for Vendetta actually happening is the movie returning to theaters for its 20th anniversary on Guy Fawkes Day. Alan Moore, who famously wants nothing to do with any adaptation of his work, presumably didn’t lose sleep either way.
Casey Bloys Told You This Would Happen
Back in March, as we told you, after Peacemaker Season 2 lost nearly half its audience, HBO boss Casey Bloys raised all the red flags about Gunn’s DCU television plans, making it clear he greenlights DC projects “based on the script” — not because of any master plan, and not because of whose name is attached.
This is that policy in action. Gunn and Safran were executive producers on V for Vendetta, and it didn’t matter. Bloys read the script, didn’t like the direction, and passed.
It also fits the rest of the HBO picture: Waller is stalled to the point Bloys wouldn’t commit to it even being close, Lanterns heads to Hall H at Comic-Con this month needing to flip a mixed trailer response ahead of its end-of-summer launch, and Peacemaker Season 2 — the one where Jennifer Holland got Gunn to scrap the original scripts — bled a big chunk of its audience by the finale.
The Pile-Up Continues
Zoom out and the timing writes the story itself.
This lands squarely in the fallout of Supergirl‘s projected $244 million theatrical loss, with Warner Bros. insiders already expecting Gunn to be out and his DC contract potentially running out right as Paramount takes over.
Add it to the list: filmmakers reportedly don’t want to work at DC, there’s still no DCU Batman thanks in part to the Matt Reeves pushback, and Tom Brittney’s comments about the Batman chaos only underlined how messy things look from the inside.
Even the wins come with asterisks. Adria Arjona’s Wonder Woman is being positioned as a Man of Tomorrow selling point, while the studio’s next big TV swing is a Jimmy Olsen series pitched as a superhero Spinal Tap, a show that was never on the original slate.
There’s a reason Gunn and Safran are already being called 2026’s biggest losers.
Could V for Vendetta come back with a new writer? Sure — that’s the official line. But with the Paramount deal closing in and every unmade project on the books getting a second look, “maybe later with another writer” is usually Hollywood-speak for shelved.
Remember, remember: at HBO, the Gunn and Safran stamp doesn’t get a script made. Casey Bloys does.
