DC Studios adds two new animated movies to their slate
Two new animated DC Studios movies, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen has been announced as part of DC Elseworlds.
With the DC Extended Universe drawing to a close with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the new regime under co-chairman and co-CEOs of DC Studios James Gunn and Peter Safran are kicking off with their new slate in “Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters.”
DC revealed two animated films as per The Direct which is to adapt two significant events that shaped the modern age of the comic book industry: Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen.
Of course, there have been many titles like The Dark Knight Returns and DC’s competitor, Marvel that make up the Big Two, and from some independent publishers at the time that contributed to the landscape but it was these graphic novels that were key.
The Significance of Crisis
Like Watchmen, the crossover “event” storyline published by DC Comics between 1985 to 1986 authored by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, has been adapted before on the small screen for The CW known as the Arrowverse TV franchise, which coincided across episodes of Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow on the network.
The idea behind Crisis on Infinite Earths was to abandon the DC Multiverse and streamline many decades at that point of DC’s continuity into a singular and unified shared universe such as the DC Universe.
Who watches the Watchmen?
As for the limited comic book series hailed by writer Alan Moore and artists Dave Gibbons and John Higgins collected as a single volume in 1987, Watchmen was one of the first of its kind to deconstruct the superhero and was a reflection of the complex political heights of the Cold War set in an alternate history where costumed vigilantes were outlaws and most superheroes went into retirement.
Watchmen have been adapted twice in live-action by Zack Snyder on the big screen in 2009 and for a limited television series for HBO by Damon Lindelof. The series picked up over 34 years after the conclusion of the events that had taken place in the graphic novel.
So what is the plan for DC’s animated films?
From the moment it was announced Gunn and Safran were the new co-heads of a rebranded film studio (DC Studios) questions had been wavering on the status of properties outside of their unified DCU like The Batman and Joker sequels in addition to Teen Titans Go! Not much is known about Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Watchmen animated movies in terms of their creative team, release schedule, cast, trailer, and other news.
The Direct seems to point to the ideas as with the case of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths that since content like The Penguin, Joker: Folie á Deux, Superman & Lois are being rolled over to DC Elseworlds, the 2024 animated film based on the Wolfman and Pérez crossover may draw a close to the “Tomorrowverse” started with 2020’s Superman: Man of Tomorrow.
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