As the Annecy Animation Festival proceeds, Warners and DC now reveal their newest animated project that will connect to the DCU.
The Annecy Animation Festival has showcased a lot of upcoming projects from Warner Bros. Firstly, the studio would debut 20 minutes of footage from the new animated feature film from the realm of Middle-Earth with Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim. Warners would also announce projects coming from their DC Comics division. A trailer was shown for a two-part, R-rated, animated feature film version of the Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore. Now, James Gunn would send a video message for a presentation on sharing his vision for the first project from DC Studios — Creature Commandos.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Gunn sent in a video due to being in production with Superman in Atlanta. Creature Commandos is about a ragtag group of monsters that are led by Amanda Waller (voiced by Viola Davis) and is set to release on Max in December. Gunn explained to the crowd at Annecy, “It’s a cornerstone of the legacy we’ve been entrusted to carry at DC Studios and plays an integral role in the vision for our future storytelling. Since taking the reins, our true north has been to bring DC film, TV, animation and gaming into alignment under a single banner and bring a sense of unity and consistency into the DCU as a whole. This frees us to create a range of products that are diverse and compelling, and deliver great stand-alone entertainment experiences on every medium, while also being part of a larger story that we’re telling within our unified DCU.”
Gunn expounded that the different mediums would keep universe consistency, “What this means in practical terms is that our characters can move in and out of animation or jump into a game or onto the big screen, but they will remain consistent throughout — same character, same history, same actor.” Davis had already played Waller in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker projects. “The new series 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. Instead, she recruits a ragtag band of misfits, not unlike the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.”
What differentiates Creature Commandos from The Suicide Squad? Gunn says the core group of characters “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.”