Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and inspired by characters and stories from throughout the iconic DC canon, the all-new quartet of shorts will be included on upcoming releases of DC Universe Movies, with the exception of the lengthier Constantine short. The Constantine short will serve as the anchor for a compilation set to be distributed in 2022, and although it hasn’t been confirmed, we’re pretty convinced that Matt Ryan will once again voice the character, having already done so in the two animated Justice League Dark films and the animated web series Constantine: City of Demons (not to mention his continuing live action stint on DC's Legends of Tomorrow).
All four new DC Showcase shorts are produced by Rick Morales (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge). 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! will be the first of the new shorts to be released. The post-apocalyptic thriller will be attached as a bonus feature to Justice Society: World War II in Spring 2021.
Created by Jack Kirby, and set in a future in which what’s left of humanity interacts with intelligent, talking animals (how dare you suggest it was influenced by Planet of the Apes?), the only time Kamandi has been adapted was in a handful of episodes of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, a light-hearted show that delighted in deep dives into the DC canon.
Launched in 2010, DC Showcase was originally comprised of four animated shorts: The Spectre (2/23/2010), Jonah Hex (7/27/2010), Green Arrow (9/28/2010) and Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam (11/9/2010). An additional short, Catwoman (10/18/2011), was attached the following year to the release of Batman: Year One. For 2019-2020, DC Showcase returned with five shorts: Sgt. Rock (8/6/2019) Death (10/22/2019), The Phantom Stranger (3/17/2020), Adam Strange (5/19/2020), and the interactive Batman: Death in the Family (10/13/2020). Actors featured on DC Showcase shorts have included Malcolm McDowell, James Garner (in his final performance), Jerry O’Connell, Linda Hamilton, Karl Urban, Gary Cole, Alyssa Milano, Bruce Greenwood, Thomas Jane, Michael Rooker, Eliza Dushku, Neal McDonough, Ariel Winter, Danica McKeller, George Newbern, Michelle Trachtenberg, Charlie Weber, Arnold Vosloo, Leonard Nam, Jamie Chung, Peter Serafinowicz and Michael Rosenbaum.
Check out our interview with Superman: Man of Tomorrow screenwriter Tim Sheridan on the Voices from Krypton podcast.