When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over all things DC in November 2022, excitement was quickly ignited by hearing Gunn’s plans for the first Chapter, which is similar to Marvel’s Phases. Kicking off DCU‘s Chapter 1 – Gods and Monsters is an animated series called Creature Commandos, but it looks as though that won’t be arriving until 2025.
This disappointing news for DCU fans comes from French animation studio Bobbypills, who are working on Creature Commandos. We knew that we wouldn’t be getting Superman Legacy until the summer of 2025, but the hope was that Creature Commandos and maybe live-action TV series Waller starring Viola Davis could have been 2024 releases.
Due to the 2023 strike action, and in the case of animation – the painstaking process of production – it’s understandable that things are being pushed. Bobbypills’s new presentation is actually about innovations they’ve made to speed up the animation process, but even with this, Creature Commandos won’t be arriving before 2025.
Creature Commandos, which kicks of Chapter 1 – Gods and Monsters, will be a seven episode animated series about a group of supernatural beings assembled to fight Nazis. The voice cast will be expected to cross over to live-action at some point in the future, so maybe James Gunn has an Avengers-style team-up of DC characters planned for further down the line.
Bobbypills worked on Invincible season 2 and My Adventures with Superman – so they clearly have a lot of experience with animated superheroes geared for a more adult audience. Of Creature Commandos, they say; “we’ll have to wait until 2025 to see that onscreen. It’s very high quality and ambitious.”
The voice cast includes David Harbour and Alan Tudyk. Game of Thrones’ Indira Varma plays the series lead – the Bride of Frankenstein. Frank Grillo plays the father of Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman’s character in the Suicide Squad movies). And Viola Davis will voice Amanda Waller in the series, so there’s clearly intended to be some continuation and crossover to each TV show and the upcoming DC movies. James Gunn and his brother Sean will also voice further DC characters.
Whether the setting will be true to the comics – in World War II, with Nazis stepping into the role of DC villains – remains to be seen, but it’s most likely. With James Gunn personally writing all seven episodes, expectations are definitely going to be high.
Following on from Superman Legacy will be Lanterns (featuring the Green Lantern), The Authority (surrounding an extreme group of anti-heroes), and a Wonder Woman prequel called Paradise Lost. There will also be The Brave and the Bold, featuring Batman and Robin, comedy series Booster Gold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and everyone’s favorite DC character – Swamp Thing.
While we wait for all of those, let’s turn our attention back to Marvel for a moment with The Marvels and Deadpool 3. We’ve also still got Aquaman 3 to come from DC in 2023 – and they will be hoping for a hit!