DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation held their first-ever joint showcase at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on Thursday, and they used it to lay out the most ambitious animated slate the company has put together in years. Peter Safran, co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios, took the stage at Annecy’s lakeside Bonlieu theater alongside Warner Bros. Animation president Sam Register to unveil a wave of new projects aimed at audiences from preschoolers to adult anime fans.
Three reveals carried the room. An animated adaptation of the best-selling Absolute Batman comic, a Joker anime that marks DC’s first real swing at the format, and a kid-friendly series built around Krypto the Superdog. Together, they show a studio that is no longer treating animation as a side project. Here is everything that came out of the presentation.
Absolute Batman Gets an Animated Series With Scott Snyder Running the Show
The headline reveal was an animated series based on Absolute Batman, the Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta comic that has become one of the biggest success stories in modern DC publishing. Snyder will serve as executive producer and showrunner, with Dragotta on board as a producer, which keeps the creative team that built the book in control of the adaptation.
The comic’s numbers explain the studio’s confidence. Since launching in October 2024, Absolute Batman has sold more than six million copies, with the first volume reaching an eleventh print run. It also became the cornerstone of DC’s Absolute Universe imprint, the line that reimagines familiar heroes from scratch and now includes Absolute Superman, Absolute Wonder Woman, and Absolute Green Lantern.
For anyone new to the book, the pitch is a stripped-down Bruce Wayne. No manor, no fortune, no inherited advantages. This version grew up working class in Gotham, lost only one parent rather than both, and built his own equipment by hand as a civil engineer who repairs the city by day and fights its corruption by night. The official description frames him as a working-class hero, proving that one good person can still change the world in an era defined by wealth and power.
Reaction at Annecy was loud. The presentation included a 360-degree turnaround of the Absolute Batman character model, complete with the oversized cape, broad shoulders, and spiked silhouette that made Dragotta’s art an instant signature. The show is being developed as adult-leaning animation, positioned closer to the darker, more violent end of the spectrum than the all-ages classics. No network or release window has been announced yet.
Joker: Laugh Riot Becomes DC’s First Anime
The most novel announcement of the day was Joker: Laugh Riot, billed as DC Studios’ first-ever anime series. Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios are partnering with Japan’s SOLA Entertainment on the project, which has been greenlit straight to series as an original adult animated story.
Yasuhiro Aoki is directing. He won acclaim for the animated feature ChaO and worked on Warner Bros. Animation’s The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and he already has Gotham experience from directing the In Darkness Dwells segment of the anime anthology Batman: Gotham Knight. Jim Krieg, a longtime DC animation veteran whose recent credits include adaptations of Watchmen and Crisis on Infinite Earths, serves as executive producer.
The premise flips the usual Batman dynamic on its head. After Batman is murdered, the Joker tears through Gotham’s underworld hunting the person responsible for taking his greatest adversary. The deeper he goes, the more his quest pushes him toward acting like a vigilante instead of a villain, until he is forced to reckon with a question he never expected to face: without Batman, who is he? It is a detective story told from the perspective of the city’s most chaotic figure, and the anime format gives the team room to render Gotham through the Joker’s warped point of view.
The show fits into a broader anime push at Warner Bros. Animation guided by Jason DeMarco, senior vice president of action and anime development, whose recent slate includes the Rick and Morty anime, Lazarus, and Uzumaki. SOLA Entertainment has previously contributed animation to War of the Rohirrim, the Rick and Morty anime, and Blade Runner: Black Lotus. No premiere date or network has been set.
Krypto Brings the Slate to a Younger Audience
Rounding out the trio is an untitled series centered on Krypto the Superdog, currently in development and aimed squarely at kids and families. C.H. Greenblatt, a SpongeBob SquarePants alum, is developing the project, which trades the grim tone of the other two reveals for something lighter.
The concept follows Krypto when he is off the clock from hero duty. Rather than spending all his time with Superman or Supergirl, this version of Krypto runs with a gang of misfit, wannabe criminals who live down the block. It reads as a comedy-forward take that gives DC a genuine all-ages entry point on a slate that otherwise skews mature. This one is the earliest in development of the three, with no title, network, or window yet.
The Rest of the Slate: Mister Miracle, Get Jiro, and More
The three big reveals shared the stage with a deep bench of DC animation, several of which got fresh attention during the panel.
Mister Miracle drew some of the warmest reactions. The adult animated adaptation of Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ Eisner Award-winning twelve-issue comic has King serving as showrunner and writing every episode, with Gerads producing and handling design. The story follows Scott Free, the celebrated escape artist known as Mister Miracle, whose life with his warrior wife Big Barda unravels as war erupts between New Genesis and Apokolips and his adoptive father Darkseid closes in. King has called the series his entire focus right now, and recent updates indicate the pilot is already in the edit and the voice cast is locked. On stage, King spoke about his ambition to make animation that reaches the level of prestige live-action drama.
On the Vertigo side, Get Jiro is set to premiere this fall on Adult Swim. The series has a long relationship with Annecy, having been announced at the festival three years ago before returning for a work-in-progress session.
The panel also revisited a strong lineup of young adult, kids, and family programming. That included My Adventures with Green Lantern, a continuation of the Adventure-verse kicked off by My Adventures with Superman, along with a new magical-girl-inspired series in that same world. Josie Campbell’s Starfire and Matt Bean’s DC Super Powers were both on the bill, and Safran and Register confirmed that Teen Titans Go, now the longest-running show in DC history, is in production on its tenth season.
Fan-favorite adult titles rounded out the showcase. Creature Commandos and Batman: Caped Crusader both got the crowd on its feet, with the latter confirmed to launch its second season on Prime Video on July 31.
Taken together, the presentation made the strategy plain. DC is building an animated lineup that can serve preschoolers, all-ages viewers, prestige adult audiences, and anime fans at the same time, and it is leaning on the creators behind its most acclaimed comics to do it. The Joker anime is the boldest experiment of the bunch, Absolute Batman arrives with a massive built-in readership already waiting, and the breadth of everything around them suggests animation has become a real pillar of the DC plan rather than an afterthought.
Sources: Deadline Variety The Hollywood Reporter TheWrap TVLine Bleeding Cool
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