DC can’t quit Alan Moore, though he hasn’t worked there in years, and is returning to his well again for another adaptation of his most celebrated work. It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con that Watchmen is being turned into an animated movie that is scheduled for release in 2024 and it won’t be the only famed story becoming a feature-length cartoon.
Dark Horizons reports a Crisis on Infinite Earths adaptation is also on the way next year. It is being sold as a Justice League movie and the announcement of it, along with Watchmen, was made at SDCC after a screening of the upcoming release Justice League: Warworld. This latter feature is animated and is set in the “Tomorrowverse” that started in 2020.
That continuity began with Superman: Man of Tomorrow and carried on into Justice Society: World War II, Green Lantern: Beware My Power, and Legion of Super-Heroes. Crisis will be part of that same universe, but when it comes to Watchmen, things are less clear. Odds favor a more faithful adaptation of the graphic novel than Zack Snyder’s, complete with the giant squid monster.
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But other than an R-rating, full details have not been released and it doesn’t appear this new animated version will play a part in the Tomorrowverse. DC already incorporated Watchmen into their mainline continuity with Before Watchmen and “Doomsday Clock,” which turned Dr. Manhattan into a force to be reckoned with in the Multiverse and beyond.
After years in development hell, Zack Snyder finally realized the Hollywood dream of a live-action Watchmen movie, though he cut some corners with the story despite the extended cut that included a depiction of Curse of the Black Freighter. HBO revisited the property in 2019 with the miniseries that ignored Snyder’s version and used the comics as a starting point.
A firm release window within the coming year for Watchmen and Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths has not been determined.