The CW Almost Beat Warner Bros To Their Newest Big Superhero Movie

Warner Bros is bringing the DC Comics hero Hourman to the big-screen but The CW almost had a series for the Justice Society hero. The DCTV landscape has come a long way since Arrow premiered in 2012 that would mark the beginning of the Arrowverse. The same can be said for the DCEU/DC Films after Man of Steel kicked off Warner Bros.’s first shared cinematic universe for their DC properties. While both Warner Bros. divisions have changed their gameplay over the last few years, it’s becoming more normal for the studio to use a character in both TV and film at the same time.

Warner Bros. is currently in the early stages of developing a Hourman film with Gavin James and Neil Widener penning the screenplay. It’s unknown if Rex Tyler or his son Rick Tyler will be the Hourman that the DC Films project focuses on. It’s also unclear if this will have any connections to the Justice Society that Black Adam is introducing into the DCEU with Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Cyclone, and Atom-Smasher. While Hourman is one of the smaller IPs that Warner Bros. owns in the DC Universe, this wouldn’t be the first time that the Justice Society of America member was being eyed to have his own solo project.

Back before the Arrowverse was as big as it was, The CW was looking at multiple DC TV projects to join their slate that included Arrow. The first proper spinoff they got off the ground was The Flash with Grant Gustin being introduced in Arrow season 2 as Barry Allen. But in 2013, when The Flash was in early development, The CW was also looking at doing a Hourman series in the same pilot season. Michael Caleo was writing the pilot script for the series that would have been executive produced by Dan Lin who has worked on Aladdin, the newer Godzilla films, and The LEGO Movie franchise. 

Hourman was described to center on a gifted and struggling pharmaceutical analyst who had been suffering from traumatic visions ever since he was a kid but starts to learn what they actually are. Instead of being nightmares, those visions were actually showing him what was going to happen one hour into the future. This puts him on the path to become the superhero Hourman as he uses this power to stop these tragedies from happening. But this journey would also involve him trying to win back his ex-wife and son, setting up a family dynamic too. Based on the power to have future visions, it appears that The CW’s Hourman would have focused on the second hero, Rick Tyler.

In the books, Rick did have time-visions temporarily when using a version of his hourglass that had tachyons inside of it. Perhaps the ex-wife that he was trying to win back would have been Jesse Chambers a.k.a. Jesse Quick who Rick was married to in the comics and had a son named Johnny Tyler. Based on the series synopsis, this would have been a reimagination of Hourman where the Miraclo drug wasn’t involved neither was the hourglass that normally gets Rex and Rick their super-strength and other abilities. But like many canceled TV projects, the Hourman pilot never went past the script stages as The CW ultimately didn’t go forward with it.

While Legends of Tomorrow had Patrick Adams play the original Hourman, Rex, that version lived for 2 episodes before Reverse-Flash killed him. However, both Rex and Rick have been a big part of Stargirl with the latter being the present Hourman in the new Justice Society, played by Cameron Gellman. While Rex is dead, Lou Ferrigno Jr. plays Rick’s father in flashbacks related to the original JSA. Had The CW’s original Hourman project happened, it would have been an intriguing experiment given how the premise was reconstructed from the source material, but perhaps some of that will carry into the DCEU film.

About The Author

Andy Behbakht
(1060 Articles Published)

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Andy is a senior writer at Screen Rant as he has covered the world of entertainment journalism since 2010, including superhero/comic book media. In addition to his work as a reporter, Andy co-hosts The Flash Podcast while running and producing the entire DC TV Podcasts network. He is also the founder/editor-in-chief of The Marvel Report since Fall 2015. Andy has previously written for sites such as FanSided, KSiteTV, TV Fanatic, It’s Just Movies, Heroic Hollywood, TV Overmind, and more.

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