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James Gunn's First DCU Project Gets Hit With Bad News

DCU

Highlights

The Creature Commandos animated series, planned for release in 2024 as part of the rebooted DCU, has been delayed to 2025 due to ongoing strikes in the industry.
The series will consist of 7 episodes, each running 22 minutes long, and is highly anticipated by fans, especially considering its role as the first project under the new DC Studios leadership.
The delay may work in the series' favor, as it gives a break from superhero content saturation and allows time for rejuvenation before its premiere on Max streaming service in 2025.

Despite the important role Creature Commandos is set to play in James Gunn and Peter Safran's rebooted DCU, a recent report suggests the project has hit a snag due to the ongoing strikes that saw the entire industry come to a standstill for most of the year.

The Creature Commandos are a superhero team that is generally comprised of various mutated humans, themed after mythical creatures and working for the US government in some capacity. Most recently, the team saw a revival in the New 52 era of comics, a sweeping DC comics reboot that reflected in the DC Universe Online video game and breathed life into a few lesser-known characters. This reintroduction would serve the team well when it was revealed that the Creature Commandos would be part of the rebooted DCU being planned out by DC Studios leaders Gunn and Safran.

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Creature Commandos would not only be one of the projects announced in Gunn's DCU Chapter 1 slate reveal but would also have the honor of being the first project to release under the new banner with a 2024 release date. However, that release year now has been seemingly thwarted by the long-standing strikes. In a recent update via DCU Updates on X, it was revealed that the project would now be released in 2025 with a season consisting of seven 22-minute episodes, according to Bobbypills Animation Studios. The following post in the thread provides the receipts for the claim, showing a video clip from a presentation titled Bobbypills: An Adult Animation Studio's Journey to CG.

The last time that Gunn, who frequently takes to social media to provide updates and run PR for decisions like using a classic comedy to defend Superman: Legacy casting decisions, reiterated the 2024 release date for Creature Commandos was August via a response to a question on social media. This means that the 2025 shift is likely a recent update and not one that Gunn or eager fans will be particularly fond of. In addition to the labor required for the level of high-quality visuals that animated DC projects have always boasted, the actors' strike means that the voices can't be done for a while.

The delay means that the entire DCU is now set back even further, leaving more than a full year between the premiere of the last DCEU project, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and the first showing of the new regime. While this might not be ideal, there’s also a potential upside to it, as fatigue surrounding the genre is at an all-time high thanks mainly to the MCU's content mandate from Disney, which ensured that no time would pass without a Marvel project on screens post-Endgame. While Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige's previous approach to superhero fatigue failed, rumors suggest he has also seen the writing on the wall and is planning a reboot of the MCU with 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.

Despite being an animated series, the expectations for Creature Commandos are high, both due to being the first DCU project and also having to satiate fans who still blame the cancelation of Doom Patrol on similarities between the two. As it stands, fans must wait until 2025 to see if Gunn's Creature Commandos can recreate his Guardians of the Galaxy success in the DCU.

Creature Commandos is now set to release for streaming on Max in 2025.