Merry Little Batman, an upcoming animated holiday special at HBO, is among the many cancellations at HBO Max. However, this is one of several Warner Bros. Animation projects that are currently looking to be acquired by other outlets.

The special was originally announced in September 2021 and was planned to air on Cartoon Network’s ACME Night programming before streaming on HBO Max at a later time. The plot would follow six-year-old Damian Wayne, who is all alone in Wayne Manor and must become “Little Batman” to save the manor and all of Gotham City in general from the villains that plan to destroy Christmas — an adorable take on the classic plot of Batman-related stories. Regular Show’s Mike Roth was expected to executive produce and direct the special, with Earth to Ned producer Morgan Evans penning the script.

Tom Ascheim, president of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults, and Classics programming said in a statement regarding the show’s announcement that the intention of the special was to “create a destination for multigenerational stories that pull families together through the power of imagination.” Perhaps that goal will still happen if Merry Little Batman is picked up by another outlet. DC fans can only hope.

Merry Little Batman’s cancellation is included in several other cancellation announcements from HBO Max, including a planned The Amazing World of Gumball movie, and 36 title removals from HBO Max’s streaming library, leaving a lot of subscribers confused about the company’s decisions. The cancellation and removal strategy comes in light of plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery+.

HBO Max released a statement explaining preparation for the merge, saying that combining the two streaming service’s catalogs under one platform requires a change to the content offered by both streamers overall. The merging of Warner Bros. and Discovery in April of this year also created several major changes, including layoffs and more removals and cancellation of programming, one of which included the highly publicized cancellation of Batgirl.

With any luck, most of the title removals will be picked up by other streaming services.

via Collider