Why Swamp Thing was suddenly canceled: "Insiders believed that they had a dud on their hands"

The Hollywood Reporter

The DC Universe series' abrupt cancelation after six days has left many people scratching their heads. But Warner Bros. TV's trimming of the Season 1 order from 13 to 10 episodes on April 17 was a sign that the studio wasn't impressed with Swamp Thing. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg, "despite promising reviews, insiders believed that they had a dud on their hands and, rather than pull the plug on the show and lose millions already invested with nothing to show for it ... the studio opted instead to complete work on the series and use it to bolster the library content on the DC Universe platform that serves as a value-add to its massive digital comic book library." She adds that "the timing of the cancellation was spurred by the studio's decision to bypass paying millions to store the show's physical sets in North Carolina," but the cancelation had nothing to do with tax incentives. Now there is speculation over whether the cancelation is a sign of DC Universe's future with WarnerMedia set to launch its own streaming service.