While Superman will be DC Studios' first live-action project next summer, we'll get our first taste of the DCU with Creature Commandos later this year.
The animated series will introduce a group of monstrous heroes recruited by Amanda Waller after the events of Peacemaker season 1 (which, confusingly, both is and isn't DCU canon) left her unable to reform Task Force X.
Talking to The Wrap, Creature Commandos executive producer Dean Lorey shared some new details about what to expect from the animated Max series.
"That’s going to be the first expression of James Gunn’s DC Universe. We’re considering that canon, and I think it expresses his perspective, tonally, on where he wants the universe to go," he teased, adding that the show's premise is "nothing new" for James Gunn.
"It’s ‘Suicide Squad.’ He’s done it," Lorey noted. "People aren’t going to be surprised by what it is, but I think they’ll be really encouraged to see how completely it’s going to inform this new version of the DCU, which I’m very excited about."
Gunn wrote the entirety of Creature Commandos and we know of at least one character, Frank Grillo's Rick Flag Sr., who will appear in live-action: Peacemaker season 2 and Superman. Other members of this weird team are expected to follow, though we don't currently know when or where.
Needless to say, we'll be shocked if Gunn doesn't find a way to tee up the Man of Tomorrow's DCU debut in the show's closing moments.
"[Creature Commandos] picks up directly after our Peacemaker season one finale, which leaves Waller with her hands tied operationally, meaning that she’s no longer able to get away with putting human lives on the line to carry out her clandestine morally questionable missions," Gunn recently said of the series. "Instead, she recruits a ragtag band of misfits, not unlike the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker."
He'd add that the show's leads, "are actual literal monsters, and I can’t wait for you to meet them. Creating this series has been one of the absolute joys of my life."
From executive producer and writer James Gunn, Creature Commandos is the upcoming Max Original animated event series, based on DC characters and produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation, which follows Amanda Waller as she forms a black ops team out of monstrous prisoners.
Creature Commandos stars Frank Grillo as Rick Flag, Sr., Indira Varma as Bride of Frankenstein, Zoë Chao as Nina Mazursky, David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein, Alan Tudyk as Doctor Phosphorus, Sean Gunn as G.I. Robot and Weasel, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic, Steve Agee as John Economos, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller.
The Witcher star Anya Chalotra has also been cast as classic Wonder Woman villain Circe.
Creature Commandos premieres on Max this December.