NOTE: The following contains spoilers for Justice League: Warworld available Tuesday, July 25th. You’ve been warned!
The premieres of the new DC animated movies at SDCC have a tradition where the next year’s slate of movies are announced. The tradition was upheld last night at the world premiere of Justice League: Warworld last night. Fans who stayed until the very end were treated to quite a surprise with the announcement of animated movies for Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen animated movies set for next year.
That announcement pretty much speaks for itself. But as any true DC Comics fan worth their salt is aware, Crisis on Infinite Earths is still the gold standard by which event comics are measured. The twelve-issue maxi-series by Marv Wolfman & George Pérez featured hundreds of characters and spanned all of time and space and an untold number of alternate universes, plus an anti-matter universe thrown in for good measure. It was groundbreaking in its scope, and it truly reshaped the DC Universe for years to come, for better or for worse.
Back in 2019, the storyline was adapted for television as part of The CW network’s annual crossover between the network’s Arrowverse shows—Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, and Legends of Tomorrow. Since then, the multiverse has certainly become all the rage in the last few years to various results. For every Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse there’s always The Flash and those atrocious CGI cameos.
Rumors circulated a few years ago regarding a potential adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would bring together different versions of its heroes from across its various animated universes. The last few films in the current shared continuity known as the “Tomorrowverse” seemed to have potentially teased a Crisis-like storyline on the horizon. Perhaps the biggest hint may have come from the Constantine – The House of Mystery DC Showcase which ended with the titular character pulled into a mysterious void. ‘
Fans of the original Crisis will be delighted to know that Harbinger, voiced by Kari Wahlgren, will indeed appear, albeit sporting a vastly different design from her comics counterpart. Let the speculation begin regarding which DC animated universes will be featured in the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths animated movie!
Meanwhile, I don’t think anything more can be said about Watchmen, writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons‘s seminal series that completely changed the superhero genre and the comics industry entirely. Since it was first published, many filmmakers have tried and failed over the decades to adapt the comic, until filmmaker Zack Snyder came along and finally brought the influential work to the big screen in 2009. The results were mixed at best with many criticizing the deviations from the source material such as the removal of the infamous “vagina squid monster.” A few years ago, Damon Lindeloff came along and created a Watchmen TV series for HBO that he described as a “remix” while simultaneously serving as a sequel that takes place 34 years after the events of the comics. At least we got to see the vagina squid monster depicted on screen!
Though Lindelof’s series was much better received than Snyder’s film and actually acclaimed by critics, Moore still infamously disowns any adaptations of Watchmen. It seems safe to assume that will hold true for the Watchmen animated adaptation.
More info on release dates for the Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen animated movies as it becomes available.
Miss any of our earlier SDCC ’23 coverage? Find it all here!
