'DC's Super Pets' Gets Release Date

There's huge news on the DC Films front today and in addition to release dates for The Suicide Squad and The Batman, fans were given another big date to put on their calendars. DC Super Pets will open in theaters on May 21, 2021.

Last summer it was reported that a Super Pets film was in development at Warner Bros. with Jared Stern hired to write and direct the film, set to be an animated adventure about the furry friends of DC Comics characters. Stern is certainly familiar with animated DC Comics adventures, having previously written The LEGO Batman Movie.

Not much is known about DC Super Pets just yet outside of the freshly-announced release date (via The Hollywood Reporter), but with the film very likely to focus on the pets of heroes, it could prove to be a new way to introduce younger fans to the DC Comics world.

"My own personal opinion is that the DC characters are so elastic and there's so many stories to tell," Former DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns recently told ComicBook.com during San Diego Comic-Con. "I think that anything you can do in a comic, you can do on TV or the movies. We're getting a Shazam! movie, Mera's on the big screen. We're doing a Stargirl TV show now. There's a lot. Every character's going to have their due."

The Super Pets inhabit an interesting space in the DC Comics universe. They first debuted as a semi-official group in 1962 where the generally functioned as an all-animal version of the Legion of Super-Heroes. While there have been a number of pet characters over the years, some of the characters the team has been comprised of have been Krypto the Super-Dog, Streaky the Super-Cat, Bat-Cow, Flexi the Plastic Bird, and Aquaman's seahorse, Storm. We'd also be remiss if we didn't mention Ace the Bat-Hound, too.

Of course, it won't just be heroic pets that fans are likely to see in DC Super Pets. Even villains have their furry friends, including Dex-Starr, an ordinary house cat who was given a Red Lantern ring (read: rage) after witnessing the murder of his owner. When news of the film's development broke last year, we suggested Dex-Starr as our choice for a villain in the film -- and we're making that suggestion again here.

In addition to the announcement of DC Super Pets' release, Warner Bros. also revealed dates for Doctor Sleep -- which is moving up from January 24, 2020 to November 8, 2019 -- The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, and The Batman -- without Ben Affleck -- on June 25, 2021.

Are you excited that DC Super Pets has a release date? Let us know in the comments below!