It’s just been revealed that the Degrassi reboot series that was set to make its way to HBO Max has been scrapped. The show was set to be produced by the owner of the Degrassi franchise WildBrain, with its showrunners and executive producers set to be Lara Azzopardi and Julia Cohen.
The HBO Max Degrassi series was set to be the sixth series installment in the franchise, with the others being The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Degrassi: Next Class. The Degrassi franchise follows different groups of Canadian high school students as they navigate the growing pains that arise during their teenage years.
With the scrapping of the Degrassi revival, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, the list of cancelled projects over at HBO Max is getting even longer. This comes after Batgirl was axed in post-production along with the comedy series Chad, which was cancelled prior to the date the second season was supposed to air. These projects being ditched is a result of the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger that happened back in April, with the now-infamous CEO David Zaslav stating he would be finding ways to cut back on the company spending, meaning some shows are getting the boot. HBO Max has also removed a collection of shows and movies from its site as well.
With shows like Euphoria being some of the most popular for HBO Max, Degrassi tells similar stories for younger audiences that many other shows are afraid to tell. Degrassi has also been the starting point for many huge stars in the entertainment industry. Notable stars who got their start on Degrassi include Rapper Drake, Nina Dobrev, who went on to star in the Vampire Diaries, and Shay Mitchell, who went on to star in Netflix's You and Pretty Little Liars.
As Warner Bros. continues to pull the plug on upcoming projects, fans' aggravation and disappointment in the studio are continuing to grow and grow. Although an attempt to save money for the studio, pulling these series that fans were promised will cause audiences' faith in the studio to diminish and could ultimately result in fans taking a step back from engaging in the media they do end up releasing. This could be a major problem for the studio and could cause huge films to tank at the box office, due to fan outrage over other projects.
Nonetheless, Degrassi is a beloved franchise that has found a home on many different networks like Teen Nick, Netflix, and a Canadian family channel. That being said, it's not far-fetched that another studio would be interested in green-lighting the project and bringing the Degrassi franchise back to life.
Source: The Wall Street Journal