Multiple Animated DC Projects Announced, Including ‘Absolute Batman’
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France turned out to be a big deal for DC Studios and Warner Bros., bigger even than San Diego Comic-Con used to be.
For weeks leading up to the event, virtually everyone knew and was ready for the Knightfall movie’s first trailer. Beyond that, Warner-DC had more surprises in store, including the announcement of a new cartoon based on Scott Snyder’s Absolute Batman.
Snyder will serve as the executive producer and showrunner of this series, which will be adult-oriented, similar to Harley Quinn and Creature Commandos. Absolute Batman artist Nick Dragotta is on board as a producer. The book, mega-seller that it is, was rumored to be getting an animated adaptation for a little while, so there is no real surprise here. The real curveball came when DC unfurled an entire slate that also has The Joker and Krypto.
A lesser rumor of an anime was also confirmed at Annecy, and it will star The Jester of Genocide. Titled Joker: Laugh Riot, it follows the clown as he investigates the murder of Batman. Along the way, he grows from a villain into a vigilante with a crisis of identity. Essentially, who is he really without the Dark Knight as a foil?
The project is directed by Yasuhiro Aoki (The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim) and executive produced by Jim Krieg (Crisis on Infinite Earths).
As for Krypto, The Superpet, constantly in distress, returns for an untitled series that probably won’t be an anime. Aimed at kids and led by CH Greenblatt (SpongeBob), it might be similar in tone to Teen Titans Go! The most likely template or comparison is the HBO Max series of shorts Krypto Saves the Day!
The spate of green lights at Annecy follows the announcements of Batman: Caped Crusader’s second season, Tom King’s Mister Miracle, more Creature Commandos missions, the Knightfall trilogy, and series starring Jimmy Olsen and Gorilla Grodd. There are no details regarding release dates for anything in development, which is a telling sign.
DC Studios has huge ambitions but between the failure of Supergirl and the acquisition of Warner Bros. by Paramount-Skydance, there are zero guarantees these projects will come to fruition or that James Gunn will keep his job.
This slate, like “Gods and Monsters, Chapter 1” before it, could amount to one large empty promise. Best-case scenario: a few things get released, and the rest is either struck down or reworked.
