Will James Gunn’s DC Universe Incorporate the DC Universe Animated Movies?

For more than 15 years, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment have been making DC Universe animated feature films. Starting with Superman: Doomsday in 2007, the line has alternated between adapting fan-favorite storylines from the comics, and creating original movies inspired by DC’s decades of storytelling. With a new era dawning for DC’s live-action movies — one that promises to connect not just movies and TV, but also animation and video games — we have to wonder: what are the odds that the DC Universe animated movie universe could be incorporated into James Gunn and Peter Safran’s future plans?

One thing that could suggest a connection is Gunn’s claim on Twitter that the new Superman movie — the first major project confirmed under Gunn and Safran’s leadership — will not be an origin story, and won’t be the first time the hero has met with a number of his supporting characters. Superman will be younger, though, with a story taking place at what has been described as an earlier point in his career (relative, we assume, to the post-Justice League career seen in Black Adam).

That could tie to the approach seen in Superman: The Man of Tomorrow, the first animated movie to come out in the current timeline of DC Universe films. 

In 2013, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox came out, riffing on Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s Flashpoint, a story that is rumored to influence the upcoming feature film version of The Flash. After that, the animated movies which had been largely stand-alone became a shared universe with an interconnected continuity. That continuity lasted until 2020’s Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, in which The Flash reset a dystopian timeline and set the stage for a new continuity and a clean start. 

The first of those movies was Superman: The Man of Tomorrow, which saw the hero square off against the cosmic bounty hunter Lobo. Lobo, of course, is a character Gunn has already dangled the possibility of adapting for the big screen. And the movie itself focused on a young Superman — but one who was already active at the start of the story, foregoing most of the trappings of an origin story.

On paper, that sounds like a perfect starting point for a new Superman — but there are some hiccups. The DC Universe movies have already got a Justice League (and a Green Lantern) in place. Upcoming, they have a story that sees Supergirl travel to the future to meet with the Legion of Super-Heroes. With so many pieces already in place, it seems unlikely that someone like Gunn would want to be beholden to it.

That raises the question: what’s next for the DC Universe movies? Animation takes a long time to finish, so there are likely a  number of projects (even some not yet announced) already at various stages of completion. Sure, they could be shelved, but then you just end up with the problem that it will take a potentially very long time to get any more animated projects finished and out to audiences.

Whether that means an abrupt end to the current timeline, a long wait for new animation, or something else entirely is anybody’s guess. There are plenty of Crises that could be used to reset the animated timeline in the meantime, from Dark Crisis to even Doomsday Clock, although it seems unlikely the “Tomorrowverse” would blend especially well with Watchmen. 

What do you think is the best approach for DC’s animation side going forward? Do you think the Tomorrowverse will grow and change, or do you think it will end altogether to make room for an interconnected universe with the movies? Sound off in the comments below or hit up @russburlingame on Hive Social to talk all things DC.