DC Tomorrowverse Executives Confirm Whether James Gunn's DCU Reboot Killed Their Plans

The future might look bright for James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Universe reboot, but it hasn't come without sacrifices. Starting a new DCU meant finally waving off the Snyderverse with "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom." Could the same be said for animation, though? With the confirmation that the future of the DCU would be brought to life in both live-action and animated stories crossing streams, what does that mean for the Tomorrowverse, the DC animated film series that began with "Superman: Man of Tomorrow" in 2020? According to the producers behind it, things had run their course exactly how they planned.

In an interview with Screen Rant, producers Butch Lukic and Jim Krieg revealed 10 was always the magic number for the amount of movies planned, ending with "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths." Speaking about the task appointed to them by Warner Bros, Lukic explained, "We already pre-planned this years ago that they were basically wanting us to do this universe in 10 movies. That's all we were given. They didn't want to go, the stretches of previous animated universes 20 movies." As for what came next, Lukic added, "Whatever happened afterward would be someone else; a couple of producers would do another universe, which turned out to be the James Gunn-verse." But just because things are ending in the Tomorrowverse, it doesn't mean a race to the finish line, regardless of whether or not a scarlet speedster is involved.

At the time of writing, there are still two more films to be released before the Tomorrowverse wraps up, but producer Jim Krieg is happy with the outcome of the animated entries they delivered over four years. "Honestly, we would have been happy to do 20. But when you want to do 20, and someone offers you 10, you'd say yes anyway," recalled Krieg. "We just had to pack as many characters and arcs into the first seven and the shorts – don't forget the shorts. They're germane and canon to the end."

Krieg was referring to the short films "Adam Strange," "Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth!" and "Blue Beetle," which were sprinkled in between the epic story that led to the adoption of the beloved DC event "Crisis on Infinite Earth." The dimension-hopping epic was set to be split into three parts, with the first arriving on January 9, 2024, and the two remaining sections spread across the same year. For Krieg, it's an epic farewell that doesn't see a single superhero spent. "We tried not to waste any time, and hopefully, everything we set up pays off in these last three movies." Well, look at that. Crisis averted.