J.J. Abrams is developing another DC Comics-inspired series for HBO Max– Madame X based on the character Madame Xanadu. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company are already developing a Justice League Dark live-action series and possibly a new take on Constantine. (It just so happens that both Madame Xanadu and John Constantine are part of Justice League Dark in the comics.) They are also teaming with Matt Reeves for a new Batman animated series, and separately, are working on a theatrical film with a black Superman.
Abrams is collaborating on Madame X with Angela Robinson (Professor Marston & the Wonder Women, The L Word), who will write and executive produce the series. Reportedly, Abrams and his partner/wife Katie McGrath personally recruited Robinson to work for Warner Bros. TV in order to secure her to write this show. She was previously signed to Paramount TV Studios and she remains attached to develop a remake of Flashdance for Paramount+.
Madame Xanadu first appeared in the 1978 supernatural anthology comic Doorway to Nightmare. As is the case with most long-running comic book characters, she has been rebooted with new backstories at various points in her publication history. It was eventually revealed that she originated as Nimue Inwudu, the youngest sister of Morgaine Le Faye and Vivienne, the Lady of the Lake. (In later comics, Vivienne was also referred to as “Nimue” for some reason.) She was the lover of Merlin although she later cast an imprisonment spell on him after she disagreed with his heavy involvement with Camelot.
She was also the lover of one of the ancestors of John Constantine and sired a child with him, although the baby was later killed. She was part of Kublai Khan’s court at Xanadu, from which she adopted her alias as Madame Xanadu. Later on, she served as an advisor to Marie Antoinette.
Throughout the years, she had an antagonistic relationship with the Phantom Stranger. In more modern times, she was the lover of John Zatara, the father of modern superhero Zatanna, although it was never implied that she was Zatanna’s mother. She served as an advisor to The Spectre and his human alter ego, Jim Corrigan. (She and The Spectre were later depicted as lovers.) In later years, The Spectre went rogue and blinded Xanadu. Since one of her main uses for her magic was reading tarot cards, she was rendered mostly powerless.
In the New 52 reboot, her blindness was ignored and she was once again depicted as sighted. She appeared as a member of Justice League Dark (in the present) and the Middle Ages gathering in the series Demon Knights which also featured Etrigan the Demon and the Shining Knight. In 2012, as part of the National Comics line of one-shot comics, Xanadu starred in her own issue, entitled Madame X. That was the first time she was referred to by that shortened moniker.
Jeryl Prescott portrayed the character in the short-lived DC Universe live-action series Swamp Thing. That version of the character was depicted as blind.
It remains to be seen what Warner Bros., DC Comics, and Bad Robot are doing with these various DC-based shows headed to HBO Max. Are they part of the DC film universe? Are THOSE films even connected to one another anymore? Or is Bad Robot creating its own dark universe based on the magic side of the DCU, focused on Justice League Dark?
Check back for updates!
