An encore run of Swamp Thing‘s one and only season (which originally ran on the DC Universe streaming service in 2019) debuts on The CW at 8 PM EST on Tuesday, giving it a second life of sorts on broadcast television. This does open up the possibility that the show could be revived by the linear network for a second season or more and could get merged into the Arrow-verse similar to another DC Universe import Stargirl. But the situation for Swamp Thing is a little different, and ultimately it could be up to the fans to try and convince The CW to revive the show.
The DC Comics-based series debuted in late May of 2019, but received a quick cancellation after only one episode had been released. The rest of the first season episodes continued with their weekly release, but no second season would follow. That left the show with a truncated storyline that had originally been planned to play out over at least three seasons.
Trouble for Swamp Thing started early when the episode order was cut from thirteen to ten. According to the Geeks World Wide site–which talked to sources behind the scenes–Warner execs were not happy with the direction of the show after seeing early cuts and made the call to end it after ten episodes. They decided the show was too expensive (the price tag of the first season was in the $80 million range) and preferred the lighter approach of The CW superhero entries like The Flash and Supergirl. Apparently, both HBO and The CW considered picking up the show for a second season at that time, but they both decided to pass on it. Executive producers James Wan, Gary Dauberman, and Mark Verheiden tried to fight for the show, but they were not able to convince Warner Bros. to keep it going.
>Buy Swamp Thing on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon.com
But the production shutdowns from earlier in the year heavily impacted the availability of scripted programming for the Fall 2020 season and have opened up a second chance for the show. The CW–which is co-owned by Warner Bros.–decided to give Swamp Thing an encore run in Prime Time to pad out its schedule. Network president Mark Pedowitz said in May that there are currently no plans to continue the show on the network past its first season, but still left the door open:
At the moment, it’s just the one season. I do not know if it would come back. Obviously that would be a discussion for Warner Bros. and The CW. But at this time, Swamp Thing is just the episodes we have.
Add to that the fact that the cast and crew have already been released from their contracts and the sets have certainly been destroyed. That would make it difficult to ramp up a second season, but not impossible. Plus HBO Max has a Justice League Dark series in the works which would also certainly involve the Swamp Thing character, and WB may not want a separate series running on another network.
But Stargirl made the jump to The CW, and it is not impossible that Swamp Thing could as well. The former series aired episodes on the linear network the day after their release on DC Universe this past Spring, and the show performed well enough in the ratings. The same-day numbers were only in the 0.2 range, but apparently that was enough to convince the network to pick up the show as an ongoing series (DC Universe has since exited from the scripted programming game). Should Swamp Thing perform well for The CW, the network may have an interest in keeping it going and merging it with the Arrow-verse, similar to what they appear to be doing with Stargirl.
Ultimately, the fate of the show may be in the hands of the fans at this point. If they were to stage a Call to Action on the social networks to bring attention to the series and get it trending, that could help boost its ratings for its broadcast run. Competition for scripted programming is not too stiff this Fall, so it is possible that Swamp Thing could draw decent viewership. It is a longshot at this point, but the encore run does give the show another chance, and the efforts of the fans could help it to continue into a second season if they make a strong enough push.
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