After months of waiting, DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn finally announced the highly anticipated slate of upcoming DC Universe projects. Amongst such hyped films and series, Gunn brought the limelight to Booster Gold, who is all set to get his first solo live-action series.
This announcement is fascinating as a live-action series featuring the character had been in the making for over a decade. In 2011, Arrowverse co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg were associated with a show on Booster Gold, which was supposed to debut on Syfy. However, the project fell apart within a couple of years.
Later in 2016, a Booster Gold film was rumored to be in development, with Zack Stentz set to write along with Greg Berlanti being eyed to helm the project. The film was supposedly not connected to the now-dead DC Extended Universe. However, like the previous TV series, the live-action film’s script did not come to any fruition.
Booster Gold – Finally, After Years Of Developmental Purgatory!
As mentioned before, projects associated with this superhero from the future had decades of false starts. While the most recent development in regards to the character was the script written by Zack Stentz with Greg Berlanti’s association, it is not clear if James Gunn and Peter Safran just greenlit that previous script from 2016. However, that is highly unlikely. The newly revamped studios will likely focus on developing a new script for television.
Interestingly, as per recent reports, Greg Berlanti signed a massive new deal with Warner Bros. Television to produce exclusive content for the studio till 2027. With WBD and Berlanti’s deal with The CW not being in the picture anymore, it is highly likely that the Arrowverse co-creator will produce new DC content for Warner Bros. Television. Thus, Berlanti is also expected to be associated with this Booster Gold project. With such public announcements by James Gunn and co., this time, the project is likely to make it to viewers.
Why Booster Gold Has Massive Potential To Impress DCU Audience?
It has been over twelve years since Booster Gold made his live-action debut in Smallville’s tenth season. The character portrayed by Eric Martsolf ended up being one of the most iconic characters to show up in the series, along with Jaren Brandt Bartlett’s Jaime Reyes, the Blue Beetle.
Furthermore, Booster (Michael Jon Carter) is essentially a massively cocky character who often acts as a jerk. This type of persona has made him a humorous character who does not possess the default moral compass of most superheroes in DC Comics. Despite such negative qualities, the character was a member of teams like Justice League International, Justice Society International, Time Masters, and more.
In the comics, Michael Carter is from the 25th Century, when he stole time-travel tech in order to garner fame by fighting crime with his knowledge of the future. Following his brief exploits in the future, the character uses Rip Hunter’s time machine,i.e., the Time Sphere (not to be confused with Waverider), to travel to the past. As showcased in Booster Gold #8 and #9, in the past, Booster thwarts an assassination attempt on 40th US President Ronald Regan by a shapeshifting antagonist named Chiller. This ushers Booster into newfound fame, which leads to him being offered film and commercial deals.
Booster Gold’s TV Series Can Channel Saul Goodman
The character is not entirely a jerk and has his fair share of hardships in terms of bankruptcy and the loss of his twin sister. Thus, Booster has a real potential to be the superhero equivalent of Saul Goodman. Now that Better Call Saul has ended and showcased to the world how to portray a sleazy yet sympathetic character that masses will adore, the upcoming Booster Gold show can attempt to make a similar effort. Since the character wants to utilize his fame and opens a company named Booster Gold International (formerly Goldstar, Inc.), there will be a business aspect like Better Call Saul, which may interest viewers.
Like Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman, Booster’s arc in the series can explore precisely why the character acts as a jerk and makes questionable choices. Additionally, the show may decide to ditch such attempts to justify the character’s selfish persona and focus on the negative qualities à la Amazon’s The Boys.
These potential narrative choices in regard to the character’s personality and arc can provide the bases of a massively entertaining show. Thus, the upcoming Booster Gold show has a huge potential to woo audiences into the DC Universe.
Comedy Actors To Portray Booster Gold
Due to the light-hearted nature of the character who would have to deal with the consequence of time travel on the timeline, Booster Gold can be portrayed as an individual without a huge intellect. Thus, the character can be portrayed by the likes of comedic actors like Andy Samberg, Zac Efron, Zach Braff, Owen Wilson, Joe Keery, or others.
Void Of DC Superhero Shows
With the recent cancellation of DC superhero shows like Titans, Doom Patrol, The Flash, and Legends Of Tomorrow, fans will likely embrace a new series based on DC characters. Thus, Booster Gold has a massive potential to fill such a void.
Since the character has a myriad of cool superpowers like flight, energy manipulation, time travel, and more, Booster Gold will be able to satisfy the general superhero fans as well.
Skeets!
Unlike most superheroes, Booster Gold has a cool futuristic robot named Skeets. Think of Skeets as Booster’s personal Gideon AI-like robot, which provides him with future news that is used by him to stop crimes and gain further popularity. As Skeets is a robot, he can be given any variation of personalities that would charm viewers through his interaction with Booster.
With such a morally complex character, the possibility of a nuanced comedy series is very likely. Now, it remains to be seen what talents are hired by DC Studios to bring Booster Gold to life in the upcoming DCU.
