Doom Patrol Series' Cyborg Audition Tapes Surface

Screen Rant

Doom Patrol Streaming Series' Cyborg Audition Tapes Contain Strong Language

By Matt Morrison

Published Jun 4, 2018

Audition tapes for DC Universe's Doom Patrol include strong language on par with Marvel's Netflix shows and raise questions about the Cyborg movie.

A series of leaked audition tapes for DC Universe's upcoming Doom Patrol series suggest a more mature take on the classic comic series than was previously expected. The fact that the audition tapes show three different actors reading for the role of Victor "Cyborg" Stone also suggests that the plans may be changing regarding the upcoming films making up DC Films' cinematic universe.

First appearing in My Greatest Adventure #80 in June 1963, the Doom Patrol were billed as "The World's Strangest Heroes" and formed from a group of misfits whose superpowers were more of a curse than a blessing. That theme continued when the series moved to DC Comics' mature readers' imprint Vertigo Comics in later years, bringing in such oddball character concepts as Danny The Street - a sentient road that took the concept of a background character to literal extremes.

Omega Underground published the audition videos and transcripts, which depict Cyborg talking to his father, scientist Silas Stone and fellow tech-based superhero Cliff Steele (a.k.a. Robotman). Both scenes involve much stronger language than has been seen in the DC Comics' superhero shows on The CW, such as Arrow and The Flash.

While the revelation that some of the series being developed for DC Universe might be on par with Marvel TV's original series on Netflix (such as Daredevil and Jessica Jones) in terms of crafting a superhero series aimed at mature audiences is significant, the fact that actors are auditioning for the role of Cyborg in the first place is a point of interest in and of itself. Warner Brothers has been quite strict about attempting to neutralize brand dilution by not allowing DC Comics characters from their television series to appear in the DC films and vice versa. This is why the showrunners of Arrow were forced to eliminate their versions of Amanda Waller and Floyd "Deadshot" Lawton in the wake of the Suicide Squad movie and why they gave Manu Bennett's Deathstroke a grand send-off in season 6 after it was declared that they could no longer use Slade Wilson because the character was being reserved for several projects in the DCEU.

With Cyborg now appearing in Doom Patrol and - per the casting notice's instructions - DC Universe's upcoming Titans series as well, it is unclear what this means for the Cyborg solo movie scheduled to hit theaters in 2020 or Ray Fisher's future playing Victor Stone in upcoming DCEU productions. It's possible that Cyborg may have become one of the rare exceptions to Warner Brothers' policy, such as the exemption that allows Grant Gustin and Ezra Miller to both play The Flash and it makes sense that they would want Cyborg - one of the most popular and prominent members of the Titans - to be part of the Titans series. In either case, all of this news suggests big things are afoot on the DC Universe streaming service.