Warner Bros. may be playing fast and loose with DC movies in live-action, but over in animation, the studio makes sure to release a handful of movies every year. Sometimes these are fun one-offs (often set in another universe, adapted or others), and others are part of their own ongoing world that’s technically meant to function as the primary DC animated universe. For 2024, DC’s going back to the nostalgia mines by adapting two of its most well-known works.
As revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, two of the planned animated DC movies for 2024 are Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen, neither of which need much introduction. The former, from Marv Wolfman and the late George Pérez (whose 1-year anniversary of his passing was back in May), is practically functions as the definitive multiverse story for Big Two comics. It informs other big DC multiverse events (or events with “Crisis” in the title) and has been adapted in some form or another over the years, most famously in live-action with the CW’s Arrowverse.
Meanwhile, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen is the other big maxiseries that hangs over DC stories. (This animated, potentially R-rated movie was previously hinted at all the way back in 2017, but it’s understandable if you’ve forgotten that.) Following the release of Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation, WB and DC have dipped into the Watchmen well a handful of times in the last five or six years. HBO had that hit limited series that served as a sequel/remix to Moore and Gibbons’ original work, and the comic book limited Doomsday Clock by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank functioned as its own separate sequel/crossover.
No further details were revealed for either film, but just with the information on hand…maybe after this we could stop trying to adapt or sequel-ize them? It’s gotten to the point now where it’s more exhausting than it is exciting, and there’s other more recent stories that could probably have some fun being brought to a new medium. Or maybe just do some wholly original ones that don’t have the name recognition (and by extension, baggage) of its original version? Please?
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