Wow. This is a tough one, as Kevin Smith reveals his Strange Adventures episode featuring Bizarro Superman has been canceled at HBO Max, which of course follows Warner Bros. Discovery and CEO David Zaslav canceling Batgirl and Wonder Twins, among others.
What also really hurts is that Smith reveals he wanted Nicolas Cage to play the Bizarro Superman (Cage nearly played Superman in Smith’s defunct Superman Lives years ago), and Smith further reveals the budget of the episodes would have been really high – around $20 million an episode – and to put that into perspective, The CW DC shows are only around $3-5 million, so Strange Adventures would have been something special.
Getting back to Kevin Smith’s Bizarro Superman episode, Smith revealed on his YouTube channel that he was contacted by HBO Max and asked to pitch an episode where he chose from a list of characters that he could use, so he chose Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, the Daily Planet, Bizarro Superman, and Toyman, with other characters on the list including Ragman and Deadman.
Smith says Strange Adventures would have been an anthology series using the lesser known DC characters as WB wanted to promote them heavily on HBO Max and that he was going to do the first episode and submitted three drafts of the script where he says WB loved it.
Kevin Smith wanted Nicolas Cage to play Bizarro Superman in Strange Adventures
His idea for Bizarro Superman was to have Nicolas Cage play the character, but again the project was canceled by HBO Max, where Bizarro would have taken Jimmy Olsen and Perry White to a version of Bizarro World which would have been set in the Daily Planet where everyone pretended to like their “Superman,” but were really afraid of him.
Smith also said his Bizarro looked more like a guy wearing the old George Reeves Superman costume and would have been a being from another dimension who attempted to replicate the Daily Planet and the stories of Superman where he set himself up as Superman, however as the episode went on, it becomes clear he’s not Superman where he fights a rebellion and such.
Smith reveals the end of the episode would have featured Bizarro redeemed as he saves a child and becomes the Superman he always wanted to be and flies off by himself. The post-credit scene would have featured Bizarro by himself at the edge of nowhere where boots are shown landing next to him. It’s the real Superman who says, “I hear you did a really good thing, you know where I came from. Hi, I’m Kal. I want to be your friend.” And Bizarro was like, “Friend…”
Smith also says it was going into production, so it was going to happen, but Smith says, “This was killed definitely by the new regime,” — of course, Smith meaning Warner Bros. Discovery and David Zaslav. “Yeah, absolutely,” says Smith.
Smith also said he doubts Green Lantern and other DC shows will be released on HBO Max.
Listen to more below starting around the 6:40 mark.
Kevin Smith reveals Strange Adventures Bizarro Superman ideas:
