Breaking news! Booster Gold screenwriter/showrunner David Jenkins posted Friday to his account on Threads.com:

"My Booster Gold won't be moving forward.
Can't improve on Mahershala's lovely statement so I'll just apply it here as well."

Jenkins linked to a Mahershala Ali interview with GQ.com in which Ali appears to have specifically called out Marvel Studios for canceling his Blade movie reboot:

"For whatever reason, that project is not for me. If they wanted to do it, we would've done it. So I have to move on … Again, you had me under contract, they have billions of dollars, if they wanted to do the movie, we would’ve done the movie. So we’re not doing the movie … But I feel ready to move on from the Blade questions. Those questions are for them. They didn’t want to do it, so they should answer that question."

We can all read between the lines here: It was the studio's decision to reverse course on the project. I'm in no position to know, but I wouldn't be surprised if either or both of the dismal performance of Supergirl and the contentious (and debt-laden) Warner Bros/Paramount merger were the roadblocks here. Jenkins being a vocal opponent of the merger probably didn't endear him to studio executives, either. Movie-making is a for-profit business, and sometimes the timing is just wrong.

Of course, it's also important to realize that Jenkins is only lamenting the end of "his" Booster Gold. Until Warner Bros firmly closes it, the door remains open that James Gunn and company could yet take our hero in a different direction.

Someone or other has been trying to get Booster Gold into your television set or movie theater since 1991, and this is the closest we've gotten yet. I'd say even considering this setback, we're still making progress.

Thanks to the many of you who made sure we saw the sad news. (Judging by how many emails I got, I may have been the last to know.) Try to enjoy your weekend.

UPDATE:

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Noah has pointed us towards an x.com post from @homeofdcu that writes

David Jenkins has been attached to Booster Gold as a showrunner and executive producer. This would indicate that DC Studios picked up his pilot script for the series.

To substantiate their report, Home of DCU directs readers to the website of the Writers Guild of America (directories.wga.org), where I grabbed this screenshot:

Looks like one step closer. That's pretty cool. Thanks for the good word, Noah.

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Earlier today, David Jenkins posted to Bluesky:

Just handed the Booster Gold pilot in. I love it. One of my favorite pilot scripts. 💙💛
bsky.app/profile/david-jenkins.bsky.social

Cool. Though it inspired a few thoughts.

If the earlier instance of Jenkins deleting his posts about working on the Booster Gold television show wasn't an indication that he was off the project, why didn't he say so at the time? And here he's saying he's just happy about the script itself (which he's clearly not contractually prevented for admitting exists). Does all this indicate behind the scenes friction with the production or the studio?

And should we read anything into the blue and gold hearts? Hmm?

Whatever. So long as it's good.

Thanks to Rob Snow for ensuring I saw this.

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Over the weekend, pigeon writes

Hi! just wanted to let you know this thing about the booster gold show. david jenkins just deleted his post about writing the show, and unfollowed james gunn, so he might not be writing it. which sucks, because his writing is perfect for a booster show.

Quick refresher for those who haven't been paying attention to the slow-moving fiasco that is Booster Gold's journey to television stardom: Jenkins had been attached to the project since last July (personally confirming the news on Instagram in a post that has now been deleted), making him the latest in a string of many, many writers and producers gained and then lost since a Booster Gold television show was first teased in 2011. (It's almost old enough to drive!)

Like everyone else online, I can only speculate what this might mean for Booster boosters. Is Jenkins really off the project? Was it his decision? Gunn's? Is the pending Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. already churning the waters? Does social media make everyone act like we're all still in middle school?

Although this sounds like bad news, it also sounds like merely the latest speed bump in Booster's very winding road to live-action adventures. Let's hope this isn't a dead end street.

Thanks, pigeon.

UPDATE: For those who want a reminder of how we got here, here's a link to the Boosterrific! Movie Development page: boosterrific.com/booster/movie.php.

FURTHER UPDATE: Someone on x.com had the good sense to directly ask "Any truth to the rumors that you have left the Booster Gold pilot for the DCU?" and Jenkins answered "As far as I know it's still in the pipeline". Which looks on the surface as a refutation of the rumor. But Jenkins is a writer of some renown, which means he chooses his words carefully, and the words he chose here are not an explicit confirmation of his involvement. So make of this whatever you want, Booster boosters.

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Breaking news alert! Just in time for them to talk about this ad infinitum at Comic-Con, Deadline exclusively reports

HBO Max is progressing with its Booster Gold TV series and has attached Our Flag Means Death creator David Jenkins to write the pilot.

And we can be reasonably certain that it is true because Jenkins posted about it on Instagram.

Now, ray of sunshine that I am, I'm inclined to point out that this is at least the third announced writer for the current iteration of a Booster Gold series which has been in the works at Warner Bros since *checks notes* 2011. And they are still working on hammering out a single pilot episode. I will, as they say, believe it when I see it.

But that's just me being grumpy.

I'll concede that having a writer working on the project is certainly more promising than having no writer. So adjust your own hopes and dreams accordingly.

(Thanks to Rob Snow, whose emails inspired me to go ahead and post this news before I get any grumpier from the inevitable tidal wave of unfounded Internet speculation this announcement will unleash.)

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