![]() It gained some traction from its online release, being subsequently released on the Xbox Games Store and a couple of obscure TV networks, but all for naught. Unfortunately, Mercy Reefnever found a new home but because Gough and Millar were so passionate about their newest brainchild they put the pilot on iTunes. Gough and Millar seemingly shopped around a few other networks and despite a lot of rejections they nevertheless persisted. As tame as the pilot is, it may not have been enough to commission the remainder of the series. So, while it was never outright cited as one of the reasons for the show’s failure to launch, it’s obvious that it was a big contributing factor.Īnother reason might simply be taste. returns to Atlantis and The CW would have to shell out a small fortune to mock it up. This isn’t taking into account the price of rendering villains each week and the inevitable moment when A.C. With so much action having to take place at sea, even low-budget filler episodes would cost a sizeable amount. The pilot episode is remarkably stuffed with CGI – from its almost entirely animated villain to its dramatic, sea-based opening and climax – and you can see why a network would panic. The most logical reason for the cancellation is budget. is the exiled prince from Atlantis and the siren is trying to bring him back for execution. Naturally, this status quo is disrupted by the reappearance of the siren that took his mother, and all is explained in one big info-dump by an enigmatic local lighthouse keeper, McCaffery (Ving Rhames gets to spout deliciously overripe dialogue like “Destiny is like a riptide, you never know it’s pulling you in until it’s too late”) who claims to hail from Atlantis. is coasting through life working in a dive shop in Florida, doubling as an animal rights activist in his spare time. It’s all very ’00s.įlash-forward a decade and A.C. There’s even a mysterious glowing pendant. The writing does a pretty on-the-nose job of explaining A.C.’s origins, opening on the disappearance of his mother when he was a little boy, at the hands of a villainous siren. It doesn’t stray far from the expected path, establishing Aquaman, alias Arthur Curry, as a buff beach bro who goes by the name, A.C. There have been far worse shows that have continued past their first episodes and although it has a fair few problems, it’s not completely unsalvageable. What’s most interesting about the entire Aquaman pilot affair is that it is, with all honesty, it’s not that bad for a pilot episode. ![]() Smallville co-creators, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, even penned the script and it seemed that all systems were go for another Smallville-sized hit. Additionally, a promising cast for the pilot was assembled and behind the camera was Smallville veteran director Greg Beeman. Piping hot up-and-comer Justin Hartley, latterly best-known for his roles in This Is Us and Smallville, was enlisted as a new iteration of Aquaman because the network was fearful of getting mired in the continuity of Smallville if they used Alan Ritchson’s take on the character. These characters all cropped up with an eye to future success for the network but in 2005, despite the fact Smallville had five acclaimed series under its belt and no end point in sight, a spin-off had never been considered.Īs you would expect, the story of The WB’s Aquaman TV show does not end well, although there was never any sign of trouble in paradise (literally) throughout its production. Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen dropped into Arrow for a few episodes with the intention of paving the way for his own series the titular Legends Of Tomorrow were all seeded throughout other DC TV shows, and Supergirl eventually joined the Arrowverse in a formal capacity after a lot of meta references on her own show. The calculating, ever-changing nature of Greg Berlanti and the talented folk at The CW has resulted in a television universe where nothing is accidental. Smallville’s continued success over the decade it was on makes it all the more surprising that a spin-off was never given the green light, and that what is known as the Arrowverse didn’t actually kick off in the mid-2000s. It had the ‘attractive yet non-threatening, racially diverse cast of a CW show’ before The CW was even a thing, and its innovative nature informs a lot of what that network’s superhero shows do today. Back in the mid-noughties it was the biggest superhero show on the air (partly down to the fact it was the only live-action superhero show around) and, at the time, seemingly the only one for the time being.
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