DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation used this week’s Annecy International Film Festival to reveal three new animated projects — an adaptation of the bestselling Absolute Batman comic series, a Japanese-produced Joker anime called Joker: Laugh Riot, and an untitled children’s series centred on Superman’s dog Krypto. Peter Safran, DC Studios co-chairman and co-CEO, joined Warner Bros. Animation president Sam Register on stage for the announcement; James Gunn sent his regards from Atlanta, where he is currently shooting Man of Tomorrow.
The announcements represent the fullest picture yet of just how central animation is to Gunn and Safran’s DCU strategy. Where previous DC leadership treated animation as secondary to live action, this iteration began with an animated show — Creature Commandos in 2024 — and is now building out a broad slate that spans adult anime, all-ages adventure, and prestige full-CG drama.
Absolute Batman — A Working-Class Dark Knight
The flagship announcement is Absolute Batman, an animated adaptation of Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s DC comic series that launched in 2024 and has sold over six million copies across 11 print runs of its first volume. Snyder will serve as executive producer and showrunner on the animated show; Dragotta joins as producer.
The series reimagines Batman as a working-class hero rather than a billionaire vigilante, placing him “up against impossible odds on a mission to prove that even in an era of wealth, power and corruption, one good person can change the world.” Register described it as “a whole different tone and a whole different take on Batman” and confirmed it will be a full CG production. Very early previsualisation artwork was shown to the Annecy audience.
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Joker: Laugh Riot — DC’s First Anime Series
Joker: Laugh Riot marks DC’s first-ever anime production, being made in Japan with director Yasuhiro Aoki, whose credits include animation work on ChaO and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Executive produced by Jim Krieg, the series presents a genuinely unusual premise: Batman has been murdered, and the Joker — robbed of his greatest adversary — sets out on a violent hunt through Gotham’s underworld to find the killer.
“As his violent quest for answers pushes him closer towards vigilante than villain, Joker is forced to confront the truth that without Batman, he doesn’t know who he is,” the official logline reads. Register described it as “very spooky and very dark” — the tone a significant departure from anything DC animation has previously produced.
Krypto — For Everyone Else
The third announced project is an untitled Krypto series executive produced by C.H. Greenblatt, described as a show for younger audiences in which Superman’s superdog tags along with a gang of misfit would-be criminals who live nearby. As Krypto follows them into poorly planned misadventures, his fundamentally pure nature gradually redeems them — whether they want to be redeemed or not. Safran called it one of his favourite DC characters getting his deserved spotlight: “funny, full of heart and, because it’s Krypto, thoroughly chaotic.”
The Annecy presentation also provided updates on a range of already-announced animated series, including the second season of Creature Commandos, Batman: Caped Crusader, My Adventures with Superman, Mister Miracle, DC Superpowers, and Starfire. Creature Commandos season two will see significant new arrivals — King Shark, Khalis, and Nosferata, all teased at the end of season one, will have major roles — and G.I. Robot has been significantly revamped.
Safran spoke about the ambition behind the entire animated strategy in terms that made the priority clear. “It’s extraordinarily important,” he said of animation’s place in the DCU, emphasising that the goal is to tell DC stories “in a broad diverse range of genres, styles, scales, tones, with stories for audiences of all ages.”
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