Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen will both be getting animated adaptations from DC Studios in 2024.
Why DC Studios Is Adapting These Stories
The announcement was delivered through DC Comics‘ official Twitter. A series of tweets, which can be viewed below, outlined the company’s plans for animated movies in 2024.
Crisis on Infinite Earths was the first major event book in American comics history. Produced to coincide with DC Comics’ 50th anniversary, the story attempted to condense DC Comics’ sizeable multiverse into a single reality. It is perhaps the most influential story in DC Comics history, having inspired every major event that reset the DC Universe ever since.
Watchmen is no less influential, having changed the popular view of comic books as low art aimed at children. Watchmen showed that comics could make use of literary techniques like foreshadowing and symbolism, while presenting complex stories aimed at adult readers.
Despite their importance, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen are still strange choices for animated adaptations. Both stories have already been adapted for live-action, with Zack Snyder directing a Watchmen movie in 2008 and HBO producing an award-winning miniseries set in the world of Watchmen. Crisis on Infinite Earths inspired a 2019 Arrowverse event, which established that all of DC Comics’ live-action film and television adaptations were part of a shared multiverse.
It is unclear if Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths movie is intended to close out the current DC Animated Universe, popularly known as the Tomorrowverse, after the first movie in the setting, Superman: Man of Tomorrow. This is possible, given that most DC Studios productions (like the upcoming Creature Commandos show) are intended to be set in the main DCU. It is also unclear if Watchmen will be a straightforward adaptation of the original graphic novel or a story set in the Watchmen universe.
As of San Diego Comic-Con 2023, the only animated movie on DC Studios’ roster is Justice League: Warworld. An exclusive clip from Warworld, which is due for release on July 25, 2023, may be viewed below.
