James Gunn Reveals Plans for Theatrical Animated Feature Films in DCU’s Future

The 2023 San Diego Comic-Com, held from July 20-23, brought us some major reveals and announcements, as it does every year. DC hyped up big announcements to arrive on one of their panels – and oh, they were right.

We learned that 2024 will bring us not one but two awesome DC animated feature films, and those two feature films will cover some of the most epic parts of DC Comics.

The first – that I’m the most excited about is ‘Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ which will be an animated adaptation of the 1985 DC Comics crossover event of the same name – the first, and best of its kind, according to many fans.

The second, but not the least less interesting, will be an R-rated adaptation of DC’s Watchmen. 2024 will be an awesome year for DC animated films and their fans.

Now, the news about the two new DC animated feature films shook the superhero-loving community, as they weren’t sure if the films would be a part of James Gunn’s DCU.

So naturally – they just asked, and the director answered on Threads.

A fan asked Gunn if the announced films will be a part of his DCU “in the same way as ‘Creature Commandos’ will be” (‘Creature Commandos’ will be the first animated series in the DCU). Gunn’s answer? A simple: “Nope.”

So, the two announced movies won’t be a part of the DCU – but another fan was curious if we’ll get to see other theatrical animated projects in the revamped cinematic universe. And, this time, the answer is a simple yet resounding “Yes” from Gunn.

That sounds like an absolutely brilliant idea that’ll certainly set the DCU apart from the MCU. The Marvel Cinematic Universe reserved their animated projects for Disney+ animated shows, with no plans of making animated feature films that are a part of the MCU – at least not at the moment.

However, if the non-MCU Miles Morales and the Spider-Verse movies taught us anything, it’s that the opportunities to tell a comic-book story in an animated feature film format are vast and can prove to be absolute hits.

I’m eager to hear which animated feature films the DCU will have in store for us, but let’s just wait to see what ‘Creature Commandos’ will look like before we get too excited.

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