Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths: Animated Trilogy Gets First Trailer

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has released the first trailer for Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One, the first of three direct-to-consumer animated movies based on the comic book mega-crossover from the 1980s. The event centers on The Monitor, a being of nearly infinite cosmic power, bringing the heroes of DC's multiverse together to do battle with the Anti-Monitor, a his doppelganger from the anti-matter universe. In the story, the Anti-Monitor was destroying universes, transforming them into anti-matter to expand his domain, and weakening the Monitor's power in the process. 

The original story, from 1985, created seismic changes at DC, merging the multiple Earths of the multiverse into one single, coherent (if cluttered) timeline. Timelines shifted, origins changed, and some characters ceased to exist entirely. It also led to the rise of event comics as one of the direct market's most important sales drivers.

You can see it below.

DC has published enough sequels to Crisis on Infinite Earths in the years since that characters within the DC Universe coined a specific term for them, "Crisis Events." Those sequels include 1994's Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time, 2005's Infinite Crisis, 2008's Final Crisis, 2011's Flashpoint, and 2022's Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC's television Arrowverse adapted the story into the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" event in 2019. That story spanned Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman episodes, as well as cameo appearances by Black Lightning and numerous characters from throughout DC TV history, including Tom Welling's Clark Kent, Kevin Conroy's Bruce Wayne, and more.

Since multi-part animated adaptations of both Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen were announced, some fans have questioned whether these two massive stories meant DC would be putting their long-running series of animated movies on ice after 2024. If so, it would line up with the creation of James Gunn's new DC Universe, which he has promised will tie live-action movies and TV together with animation and video games into one clear universe with the same actors playing the parts across all media. Warners has yet to confirm these suspicions, though, and it's equally possible that they just felt like they really needed a guaranteed win while the live-action movies are on hiatus.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths releases in 2024. DC's newest animated movie, Justice League: Warworld, premiered at Comic-Con in July ahead of its release Digital, 4K Ultra HD, and Blu-ray.