A filtering of productions to the internet begins that many saw as more or less inevitable. The first movie to hit the net was ‘Scooby-Doo! And Krypto, Too!’, which intersects the universes of Scooby-Doo and DC heroes with an inevitable clash: the dog solves mysteries and Krypto, Superman’s pet who has recently starred in larger-than-life films, such as ‘DC League of Super Pets‘.
Pet filtering. Scooby Doo! And Krypto, Too! has appeared on 4chan, and has quickly been distributed by other platforms such as Archive.org, where it is still at the time of writing these lines, although for obvious reasons it is not certain that it will remain on them for a long time (several Twitter accounts who talked about the subject have deleted their publications). It is a 78-minute animated feature film very similar to those that Warner usually releases directly on its platforms, that is, it was intended from the outset as an exclusive for HBO Max and domestic formats.
This leak coincides, coincidentally (or perhaps not so coincidentally) with the announcement that HBO was canceling another spin-off of Scooby-Doo!, ‘Scooby-Doo! and the Mystery Pups’, whose destination was Cartoonito, the Warner channel specializing in animation for preschool audiences. Although possibly ‘Scooby-Doo! And Krypto, Too!’ It was not called to revolutionize the DC franchises, it is an appetizing dish for fans, with the appearance of well-known characters such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, The Flash, Joker or Lex Luthor, among others.
Saving prevails. In late summer, Warner Bros. Discovery began canceling a number of projects that were either finished or nearing completion. Later it was learned that the reason for these cancellations (to which was added the withdrawal from the company’s platforms of such emblematic series as ‘Westworld’, suddenly canceled before its conclusion) was related to tax savings. The most popular case was that of ‘Bargirl’, a film that, it is said, was practically finished, and that was going to be released exclusively on HBO Max.
The decision to remove dozens of cartoon series from HBO in the United States that now cannot be seen anywhere, as well as hundreds of episodes of ‘Sesame Street’, was also controversial. In addition, the ‘Scooby-Doo!’ was especially affected: ‘Scoob! Holiday Haunt’, sequel to ‘¡scooby!’ that had already concluded its realization and whose first part came to be released in theaters. And there’s another character animated film, ‘Scooby-Doo and the Haunted High Rise’ (which would have marked the return of the tremendous Hex Girls) that was also cancelled.
Will we see Batgirl’? All this cleanup of unreleased series stopped in January 2023, according to the company’s CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. It is then when it has been known that series like the final season of ‘Snowpiercer’ for TNT -owned by the house, and already completely finished- will remain halfway unless it finds a platform that wants to broadcast it. The numbers have not finished adding up: Warner, despite the cuts, is facing a considerable financial crisis.
It’s impossible to predict if ‘Batgirl’ will leak, just like ‘Scooby-Doo! And Krypto, Too!’. It is clear that someone has had to do it from within, and perhaps the security measures and the possibilities of locating the person responsible for a possible leak make it impossible for us to see a premiere like ‘Batgirl’ with the ease with which we have seen a clearly minor film emerge. like the Scooby-Doo! But hope is the last thing millions of fans of the DC Universe lose.
