Since my antennae are always up for Booster Gold news, I'm being bombarded these days by nonstop rumors about which actor will play our hero in the announced James Gunn television show. The latest gossip (reported seemingly everywhere) is that someone has reported that they were personally told by someone else at a convention who it will be. Sorry, Internet clickbaiters, but I'm going to hold out for something a little more concrete before I declare the news Boosterrific-worthy. When DC/HBO are ready to announce the casting, they'll tell us.

Obviously, I'm not excited about this "news," but the dirty truth is that I really don't care who gets cast as Booster Gold on TV. That's because I know that they aren't making a television show for me. Heck, I doubt they're making it for any existing Booster Gold fans.

Why do I say that? Math.

Booster Gold Volume 2, which you would expect all then-existing Booster Gold comic book fans to have bought, sold approximately 53,000 copies of its first issue when first released during the month of August 2007. That's not too bad. Fifty-thousand continues to be a very respectable audience for a comic book even seventeen years later.

Compare that to the final episode of Peacemaker from February 2022. On release, HBO announced it set a single-day viewership record, and Forbes reported that over 584,000 households watched it opening weekend alone. You don't need to be a mathematician to see that 584k > 53k. By a factor of 10!

(If you want to turn those audiences into dollars: At $3.50 cover price, BG v2 #1earned a gross retail income of $185,500 in a whole month. An HBO Max subscription cost $15/month in 2022, so Peacemaker took in some portion of $8,775,000 worth of eyeballs in a single weekend!)

As the data indicates, if I was making television shows, I wouldn't be bothered by the opinions of a small minority 10% (or less) of my potential audience. You know I'm a die-hard comic book Booster booster, and if I could afford to get someone with the name recognition and box office clout of, say, Samuel L. Jackson in the role, you better believe I'd do it. He might not look or sound like Dan Jurgens' creation, but people would certainly pay to see what he delivers. And that's the whole point.

Not that I'm speculating, of course. I wouldn't do that.

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There's been a lot of talk online lately about who will act as or write for Booster Gold in James Gunn's proposed television show. Those choices will certainly be important to the show we ultimately get (assuming that we actually do get a show; remember that credible announcements by credible producers have been made periodically since 2011 with nothing yet having reached your television set), but the central question remains: What kind of Booster Gold will we see?

James Gunn has called Booster Gold a hero with “Imposter Syndrome,” and to a degree that's always been true. Booster's single greatest driving personality trait, his Shakespearean tragic flaw, has always been his unfulfillable desire to be loved. Abandoned by his (no-good) father as a child, most of Booster's greatest tragedies have resulted from his quest for external validation. It doesn’t matter how much good Booster does, nothing can fill the bottomless hole in his psyche's metaphorical heart.

Booster's successes, on the other hand, have generally been selfless acts. For example, very few inhabitants of the DCU are aware that he has saved the universe multiple times for no publicity or personal gain. Granted, he is often reluctant to get involved, and his solutions are not always perfect, but unlike his idol Superman, Booster is only a human doing the best he can to make difficult situations better. Obviously, his need to do the right thing supersedes his craving for recognition.

Booster Gold #31

The biggest pitfall when characterizing Booster is to portray him as an idiot. It's not lack of intelligence but poor judgment, usually driven by youthful brash arrogance, that leads to most of Booster's trademark misadventures (like establishing a casino on a living island or sponsoring a mind-influencing music app). Booster's need for the limelight makes his missteps extra visible compared to the likes of Batman, who operates in the shadows where no one ever sees him trip over his own cape, but Booster's intelligence and dedication to righteousness always see him through to saving the day.

To respect the character of Booster Gold, it will be important that any television series portray all sides of the hero who is, yes, cocky, impatient, and in need of constant adoration, but also intelligent, hard-working, and always well-intentioned.

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If you're a hardcore Booster Gold fan (and if you're on Boosterrrific.com, chances are good), you probably know that his Legion of Super-Heroes Flight Ring is about 500 years old, his mother has no first name, and he has sassed Darkseid to his rocky face and lived to tell the tale.

You've also probably heard that Warner Bros Discovery, by way of James Gunn and DC Studios, has a Booster Gold television series in the works. You might have heard talk recently that the role has been cast and the television series is scheduled to start filming in July, as many corners of the Internet have been reporting just that.

Except, apparently, it's not. Many of the same corners of the Internet are now reporting that James Gunn (or his social media manager) has taken a break from developing the latest movie about Booster Gold's biggest rival, that goody-two-shoes Superman, to throw cold water on those Booster Gold rumors via a post at some social media website or other.

Honestly, at this point, I don't know what to believe. Were the initial reports hoaxes? Or is Gunn just trying to disguise the truth now that the cat's out of the bag? One way or the other, I suppose we'll find out the truth one day, right Superman?

DC Challenge #12, "Phase 12.5" written by Len Wien and drawn by Ross Andru, Frank McLaughlin

Hey, if Superman's not above stealing a whole bunch of newsprint to hide his secret identity, can he really be all that mad at Booster Gold for "borrowing" some dusty old museum pieces to fight crime? (Bet they won't mention that in the Booster Gold television show.)

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Last weekend, I read online rumors that a director had been hired for the previously-announced Warner Bros Booster Gold television show, and that James Gunn himself would be writing. I did not post about that here because I was waiting for some confirmation from Warner Bros.

I don't like unfounded rumors. Founded rumors are fair game, but those unfounded ones... I can't stand those.

Here it is, nearly a week later, and we still don't know if the rumors are true. But James Gunn may have addressed them when, according to BleedingCool.com, he responded to a question about the rumor on X.com Threads.net by posting:

"Don't believe the Internet." ^[1]

Is that in reference to the announcement of the director? Or that Gunn will be writing any episodes? Or should I not believe what Gunn is saying now because I only read that online?

Or, heck, since I only know that Warner Bros is supposed to be working on a television show because I saw the announcement WB released on the Internet, maybe I shouldn't believe that either.

Or maybe the James Gunn on X Threads isn't really James Gunn? If that quote was made by an imposter, does that mean I should believe the Internet? Come to think of it, I've only ever seen James Gunn on the Internet; how can I know he really exists at all?

"Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end?" ^[2]

Anyway. I think the point here is that we still don't have any concrete news about what to expect from a Booster Gold television series, so don't get too excited — or bent out of shape, whichever your proclivity may be. James Gunn will tell us when he wants to know.

Assuming he's real, that is.

^[1] I'd link to the original post if I could find it, but X.com now requires a login to see its content, and I'm not going to do that. So I'm just going to have to take Bleeding Cool's word that this happened. Does that make me part of the rumor mill? Yes, yes it does. Probably best if you just forget that I posted any of this. As a wise man once (maybe) said, don't believe the Internet. UPDATE: See the comments! It wasn't on X but Threads, which is EXTRA why I couldn't find it.

^[2] This quote comes from a book. Since it was written on paper in the age before digital screens, the source can be trusted as the gospel truth. Which is how I know that all Cheshire cats can grin... and most of 'em do.

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Ok, I admit, I still haven't seen Blue Beetle. I will, eventually, I promise. Maybe soon, in fact. It's scheduled for release on DVD next week, and to promote that release, director Ángel Manuel Soto recently spoke to Andy Behbakht for screenrant.com.

ScreenRant: Speaking about the future, we have the post-credits scene with Ted Kord. In your head, do you know what that reunion is going to look like between Ted and Jenny? That is a father-daughter relationship I want to learn more about.

Soto: Well, definitely! Our initial joke with that was, Jaime and Jenny would be talking later, and he showed up and they [Jaime and Ted] are like, 'Who are you? That's your dad?!' between them. But I think by doing it this way opens up more of a curiosity to where is he and why is he sending this message today? Why did he leave? What did he go out to do and I think it opens a lot of doors.

For me, I always liked the idea of him and Booster Gold doing adventures and then this message being sent as a warning of something that eventually Booster Gold is the one that's able to bring Jaime into the mix, or tap Kord's expertise through Booster's time travelling powers. So for me, one of those things I definitely [want to see] are Booster Gold and Ted Kord, I want them to be a part of Jaime's future. There's a lot more that exist in all the different iterations but the Blue and Gold series is phenomenal. Their relationship is really, really awesome and a lot of Jaime's relationships with both of them are iconic, so I hope it goes that way.

ScreenRant: How funny that we have a Booster Gold TV show coming with James Gunn's DC Universe! Without spoiling it, have you and James talked about Jaime's future? Do you know your next project with DC Studios, and have you discussed what you want to do with Jaime next?

Soto: Yeah, we have had conversations about it and that's where he mentioned to me about the Booster Gold TV show that is coming up. Now, where does it fit, how is it gonna play out? We haven't talked about that. But we both have talked about our interest in continuing Jaime's story, and finding a way for that story to be a part of this new universe.

It sounds like it's still far too early to talk about what exactly Gunn's Booster Gold television show is going to be. But if it's Ted Kord and Booster Gold's misadventures through time, that sure would qualify as "must see" TV.

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