J.J. Abrams’ Justice League Dark, Shining Spin-Off, and an Original Series Are Coming to HBO Max

Things are going to get dark, shiny, and dusty on HBO Max. The upcoming streaming platform that will host Warner Media content – including HBO shows – has announced that J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, will be producing three shows for the service in partnership with Warner Bros. Television Group, including the Justice League Dark series previously reported on.

The first series will be an original property called Duster and will focus on a “gutsy getaway driver for a growing crime syndicate [that] goes from awful to wildly, stupidly, dangerously awful.” The series will be written J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan (The Walking Dead).

The second series is a bit of a surprise as it is a spinoff of Stephen King’s The Shining called Overlook. As the title suggests the series will be about the haunted Overlook hotel and the many terrifying stories that have occurred in it. It’s not stated outright but it sounds like the show will be an anthology-style horror series with each episode focussing on a different scary story at the hotel, or connected to it somehow. No word on whether it will follow the two films’ storylines, go directly from the books, or if it even needs to make that choice.

Finally comes Abrams’ first foray into the DC Universe with Justice League Dark. The comics focus on a team of anti-heroes who operate on the more mystical underbelly of the DC comics universe and usually features John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Deadman, Zatanna, and Etrigan. Interestingly, WB and DC have already taken a stab at both Constantine and Swamp Thing shows but neither panned out (though Constantine went on to become a regular on Legends of Tomorrow). Maybe DC is hoping that Abrams, who has had a hand in rebooting nearly every major franchise that now exists, can work his magic on these characters.

Bad Robot penned an exclusive production deal with Warner Media, ensuring that Abrams’ work in any medium would come to them first so these three shows are only the beginning of what we might see from Abrams and Warner Media.