Four New DC Showcase Animated Shorts To Be Released In 2021 And 2022
Four new DC Comics characters are getting the spotlight in new DC Showcase animated shorts to be released between 2021 to 2022. The animated shorts will be included on upcoming releases of the animated DC Universe Movies, as bonus features.
Warner Bros. announced that Kamandi, The Losers, Blue Beetle, and John Constantine will be the stars of four new DC Showcase animated shorts for release by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in 2021-2022. All four animated shorts are produced by Rick Morales (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge), and will be attached as bonus features on upcoming animated DC features, with the exception of the Constantine short, which will be lengthier than the others. Instead, the Constantine short will be used to kick off the launch of a compilation set that will be released in 2022.
The first short to be released is Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth!, directed by Matt Peters (Justice League Dark: Apokolips War) from a script written by Paul Giacoppo (Young Justice, Star Wars: Resistance). Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth! is described as a "post-apocalyptic thriller" which will likely adapt the 1972 Kamandi series written and drawn by Jack Kirby. The series follows the titular teenage boy huge after an event called "The Great Disaster," during which humans have been reduced back to savagery in a world ruled by intelligent, highly evolved animals.
Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth! will be attached as a bonus feature to Justice Society: World War II in Spring 2021.
Warner Bros. didn't announce the titles of the three next shorts centering around The Losers, Blue Beetle, and Constantine, nor the animated feature releases to which they'll be attached. More information will be released closer to individual release dates. The only other upcoming film that has been announced is Batman: The Long Halloween, which will be a two-part film similar to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, so we could potentially get the next two DC Showcase shorts attached to both releases.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, the DC Showcase shorts were launched in 2010 to highlight DC Comics characters that may not have received their own feature films, or expanded on characters from film releases. The first four shorts released were The Spectre, Jonah Hex, Green Arrow, Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam. A Catwoman short was atached to the release of Batman: Year One in 2011, but the division remained quiet until 2019, when DC Showcase returned with five shorts: Sgt. Rock, Death, The Phantom Stranger, Adam Strange, and the interactive Batman: Death in the Family.