At the Comic Con premiere of Batman: The Killing Joke, Warner Bros. director of publicity for their animated division Gary Mireanu announced three new DC animated universe titles, at least two of which are coming next year: a “Justice League Dark” film, an adaptation of “Teen Titans: The Judas Contract,” and another Gotham-based feature, Batman and Harley Quinn: A Bruce Timm Original.
A “Justice League Dark” film, long rumored to be titled Dark Universe, was in development under the direction of Guillermo del Toro for a few years at Warner Bros, but the project never got past initial development. Whether or not this film will use either the script or any of the general plot points from Dark Universe remains to be seen. The source material was launched by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin at the start of the New 52, and featured a team of John Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, and more. No release date was mentioned for this film.
“The Judas Contract” is, perhaps, the best known of the “New Teen Titans” adventures from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, reveals both the secret origin of Deathstroke, the main villain of this incarnation of Teen Titans, as well as the true intentions of Terra, the newly elected member of the team. An adaptation of this material is interesting, as so a few of the key players, like Terra and Jericho, are not really major parts of the comics landscape right now, and those that are, especially Dick Grayson and Cyborg, are in totally different places than they were at the point of this story. Whether this is an “Elseworlds” type tale in the DCAU or not, this is one I am eagerly anticpating. This film is due in the spring of 2017.
The final announced title, Batman and Harley Quinn: A Bruce Timm Original, is a bit of a no-brainer for DC. Harley Quinn remains one of their most popular characters, and her co-creator, Timm, created her for animation, so focusing a feature on her is logical. Plus, Batman sells…well, better than everything else. This appears to be a new story from Timm, who is best known for his work on Batman: The Animated Series. This film is due next summer.
