Last January, James Gunn and Peter Safran revealed their ambitious DCU plans as the new co-CEOs of DC Studios. They intend to tell the stories of these characters across film, television, and video games, as well as in both the live-action and animated realms.
When Gunn, who has already produced a Creature Commandos TV series, was asked whether the popular animated movies from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will continue, he responded: "We’re dealing with all that. Some of that stuff will continue as Elseworlds, but a lot of other stuff we’re starting to bring into animation with Sam Register so that we’ll have things that are connected with this."
"I think there have been a lot of really marvellous DC cartoons," the filmmaker added, "so we’re going to keep moving forward with that."
It was a vague, albeit somewhat promising, update. However, when we recently spoke with Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One executive producers Butch Lukic and Jim Krieg, it became clear they're in the dark about DC Studios' plans.
With DC Studios’ formation, there’s some uncertainty about the future of these animated movies. Are you hoping they’ll continue as Elseworlds projects or do you not know yet?
Butch: At this stage, we don’t know, but even something like Justice Society: World War II could definitely be continued with other versions as far as stories. It’s all dependent on where they want to go. It all has to be Elseworlds. We can’t go into the James Gunn universe but our whole goal, even before James Gunn came in to be in charge, was to have a ten-movie structure and then be finished at this point. Beyond that, when it comes to sequels based on these films, that’s up to DC and Warner Bros.
Jim: You know, as we’ve been doing these interviews, Butch, I’ve had flashbacks. The Tuckerverse, I think, was twenty five movies. A tremendous amount. Butch and I had this idea that we would have a long time to build to Crisis which was the pitch. I remember you and I talking to Sam Register and saying, ‘Maybe we can have twenty films and then end in Crisis?’ I think he said, ‘How about three?’ [Laughs] We built it out and negotiated up. This is where we are.
Butch: I originally wanted to keep doing a slow build with movies like The Long Halloween and Man of Tomorrow. I wanted to take as long as possible and once we gave them our pitch, they said they wanted Crisis involved and they wanted it done in ten movies. That’s why we had to fast-track some of these stories and build it towards this.
Any future DC animated movies being Elseworlds projects isn't a surprise and, if nothing else, it's been made clear to the Tomorrowverse team that they won't be telling stories set in the new DCU.
Gunn may choose to get more hands-on with these direct-to-DVD features (to ensure, at the very least, they don't clash with what DC Studios is up to) but it would be a real shame to see these fall by the wayside. After all, they often put a fresh spin on the iconic stories not adapted for screen and scrapping them is a surefire way to disappoint a lot of longtime fans.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One is now available on Digital and arrives on 4K UHD in limited edition SteelBook packaging and Blu-ray starting January 23.
Parts Two and Three of the Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy will debut later in 2024.
Based on DC's iconic comic book limited series 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, join DC Super Heroes from across the multiverse in the first of three parts of DC’s new animated film Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One, which marks the beginning of the end to the Tomorrowverse story arc.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, the all-new, action-packed DC animated film features some of DC’s most famous Super Heroes from multiple universes including Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, who come together to stop an impending threat of doom and destruction.