>>112212268IIRC, Warner Brothers has a weird corporate setup that sees a lot more fighting between divisions. A new guy wound up being placed in charge of DCU programming and began to meddle with the shows his predecessor had approved.
Swamp Thing's swamp set was expected to cost a couple million to store between seasons (certainly more expensive than normal). The new guy, looking to cut costs and expecting Swamp Thing to be a bust, announced they were killing off something like 2-3 episodes from the previously-agreed upon season order (hence the rapid plot resolutions in the last two episodes). You can also see this meddling when they cut the actual season finale with Trigon from Titans season 1.
Expecting the show to have low ratings, the new people in charge decided to cancel the show before the first episode aired. They fucked up, however, upon realizing critics and audiences gave the premiere rave reviews. This led to a bunch of drama when it burned James Wan (who produced the show and had a general love of Swamp Thing) as his name was a big draw for the higher ups at WB films.
So, in the end, it came down to the egos of a bunch of VP's from different departments. It's also the reason HBO Max is stealing Doom Patrol season 2 for themselves and Stargirl going to CW (going back to Warner Brothers' weird corporate setup).
For sources, a lot of this came from Deadline and Hollywood Reporter when it first started to unfold.
