Longtime DC Animated Universe Mastermind Bruce Timm Has Stepped Down

Bruce Timm, who has been shepherding DC Comics's animated properties since the launch of Batman: The Animated Series in the early '90s, has reportedly stepped down from that position. No reason is given for his leaving, and the news comes from Superman Unbound director James Tucker, who served under Timm as a producer and director on a number of projects. From the sound of things, he wants to diverge from Timm's vision for the DC Universe animated features, expanding the variety of stories and number of characters that are represented in the direct-to-video animated features, but doing so by creating original stories rather than adapting existing comic book tales. "I can't go into specifics but I have a feeling when we announce our next slate of movies, people are going to be very excited because we will be using Batman, Superman and Justice League as a gateway to exposing other characters," Tucker told Voices From Krypton, who broke the news. "I want our movies to feel like contemporary movies you'd see in a theatre," he added, "so that means even changing up the way we do the main titles. I want more variety in how we do things and in the types of things we do. I'd love to do a DC comic that is humorous, like Justice League International. And that could be a possibility down the line. The title Justice League is a selling point now. It works on its own so even if you don't have Superman and Batman in it – okay, Batman's in it and we could probably find a way to put Superman in it — it would work. Besides, we wouldn't adapt a literal story from the run. That's just an example of what I mean. Not every superhero movie has to be the same type of movie with the same kind of tone. There's different ways to bend the genre. It's good to mix up the format and not just do the same kind of heavy story. I want them to feel like different types of movies. Who wants to see exactly the same type of movie every time we do one of these?"