Shortly thereafter, Warner Bros. notified Alexander and Ilya that they were exercising their rights to terminate their licensing agreement and retaking possession of any remaining Superman-related intellectual property the Salkinds had licenses for. This decision meant that once the final episodes for the season were completed, "Superboy" would immediately cease production; this also meant that the planned series of telefilms would have to be scrapped and the intended series finale, “Obituary For a Superhero”, would have to be rewritten. The writers instead came up with a new final episode, a two-part episode titled “Rites of Passage”, to close the series.