Creature Commandos (TV series)

Creature Commandos is an upcoming American adult animated television series based on DC Comics featuring the eponymous team. Produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation, it will be the first television series in the DC Universe (DCU) and the first installment overall. It focuses on a black ops team of monsters assembled by Amanda Waller. All seven episodes were written by James Gunn, who serves as showrunner, while Yves "Balak" Bigerel serves as supervising director.

Frank Grillo stars as Rick Flag Sr. in the series, alongside Maria Bakalova, Indira Varma, Zoë Chao, Alan Tudyk, David Harbour, Sean Gunn, and Steve Agee. After Gunn and Peter Safran became co-CEOs of DC Studios in October 2022, Gunn began writing a new DCU television series that was revealed to be Creature Commandos in January 2023. Production on the series had begun by then and casting was underway. The cast was announced that April. Animation for the series is provided by Bobbypills.

Creature Commandos is scheduled to debut on the streaming service Max in December 2024. It will be part of the DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.

Premise
Following the events of the first season of Peacemaker (2022), Amanda Waller is no longer able to put human lives in jeopardy for her clandestine operations as she did with the Suicide Squad and Team Peacemaker. Instead, she assembles a black ops team of monsters called the Creature Commandos.

Cast and characters
A member of the Creature Commandos. This version has two arms, instead of four as depicted in the comics, to simplify her depiction for both animation and live-action. A member of the Creature Commandos who is permanently radioactive. The animators considered morphing his skeleton to show expressions, before deciding that his lack of expressions suited the character. They incorporated the Kirby Krackle effect into the character's flaming skin. A member of the Creature Commandos and the Bride's love interest, who Harbour described as "very colorful". The animators gave the character more complex emotions and a softer silhouette to better reflect Harbour's performance.
 * Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.: Leader of the Creature Commandos. Grillo said Flag was competent and had more gravitas than his son, Suicide Squad leader Rick Flag Jr.
 * Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic
 * Indira Varma as the Bride of Frankenstein:
 * Zoë Chao as Nina Mazursky: A member of the Creature Commandos and an amphibious scientist
 * Alan Tudyk as Doctor Phosphorus:
 * David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein:
 * Sean Gunn as
 * G.I. Robot: A member of the Creature Commandos and a military android whose purpose is to kill Nazis.  Early designs for the character were similar to a trash can and robots from 1950s science fiction, before the "friendlier, wide-eyed" final design was settled on.
 * Weasel: A member of the Creature Commandos and the Suicide Squad, who was compared to the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes. Gunn said Weasel's backstory would be explored in the series.
 * Steve Agee as John Economos: An A.R.G.U.S. agent who is an aide to Amanda Waller

Additionally, Viola Davis reprises her role as Amanda Waller from prior DC media. Anya Chalotra has been cast as Circe.

Episodes
James Gunn wrote all seven episodes of the series.

Background
James Gunn was hired in October 2018 to write and direct The Suicide Squad (2021), a standalone sequel to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film Suicide Squad (2016) which retained some cast members but otherwise told its own story. He worked with producer Peter Safran, who also produced the DCEU films Aquaman (2018) and Shazam! (2019). They later expanded The Suicide Squad into a spin-off television series, Peacemaker (2022–present), for the streaming service HBO Max. Discovery, Inc. and Warner Bros.' parent company WarnerMedia merged in April 2022 to become Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), led by president and CEO David Zaslav. The new company was expected to restructure DC Entertainment and Zaslav began searching for an equivalent to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to lead the new subsidiary. Gunn and Safran were announced as the co-chairs and co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios at the end of October 2022. A week after starting their new roles, the pair had begun developing an eight-to-ten-year plan for a new DC Universe (DCU) that would be a "soft reboot" of the DCEU. Gunn and Safran said some cast members would return from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker in the DCU, and a "rough memory" of the events of those projects would remain.

Development
Gunn revealed that he was in the middle of writing a new DCU television series in January 2023. On January 31, Gunn and Safran unveiled the first projects from their DCU slate, which begins with Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. The first project in the slate was Creature Commandos, an animated series for HBO Max's successor, Max, based on a black ops team of the same name featuring various monsters from DC Comics. Gunn had already written the seven episodes and production had begun. It was expected to be released as an "aperitif" for the DCU before the film Superman (2025), with some characters from the series appearing in that film. Gunn felt the series was integral to their vision for the DCU, establishing the fact that characters would be treated consistently across different mediums moving forward. Warner Bros. Animation co-produces the series. Executive producers of the series include DC Studios' Gunn and Safran, Warner Bros. Animation's Sam Register, and Dean Lorey, with Yves "Balak" Bigerel as supervising director and Warner Bros. Animation's Rick Morales as producer.

Writing
Created for Weird War Tales #93 (1980) by J. M. DeMatteis and Pat Broderick, the Creature Commandos were originally a team of monsters fighting Nazis during World War II. The series depicts a modern version of the team being assembled by Amanda Waller following the first season of Peacemaker. It includes Rick Flag Sr., Nina Mazursky, Doctor Phosphorus, Eric Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, G.I. Robot, and Weasel. Gunn said the Bride of Frankenstein was the lead character. Waller, Weasel, and Flag's son Rick Flag Jr. previously appeared in The Suicide Squad. The series is set after the events of the first season of Peacemaker.

In his pitch for the series, Gunn described it as dark, "humorous but never goofy", and unsentimental, with adult and political themes. He was influenced by the Universal Classic Monsters, manga series Golgo 13, and 1960s war films. Grillo said the series was "hard R" with a "funny and filthy" tone. Morales described it as a "macabre spin" on action ensembles such as the film The Dirty Dozen (1967) and the series The A-Team (1983–1987).

Casting and voice recording
Gunn and Safran said Viola Davis would reprise her role as Amanda Waller from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker in the DCU, and she was confirmed to be voicing the character in Creature Commandos with the series' announcement. Further casting was underway by then, with Gunn and Safran intending to hire actors who could voice the characters in the series and also portray them in live-action DCU projects; actors performed on-camera auditions instead of voice-over ones as is common for animation. Casting was almost complete by late February 2023. The cast was announced in April, with Frank Grillo as Flag; Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic, an original character created for the series; Zoë Chao as Mazursky; Alan Tudyk as Doctor Phosphorus; David Harbour as Frankenstein; Indira Varma as the Bride of Frankenstein; Sean Gunn as G.I. Robot in addition to returning as Weasel from The Suicide Squad; and Steve Agee reprising his role as John Economos from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. James Gunn said Harbour was his first choice for Frankenstein, and some of the actors, including Grillo, were already planned for live-action appearances. Voice recording began by May 2023, and was completed by that August. In November 2023, Anya Chalotra was reported to have been cast as Circe, which Gunn confirmed in January 2024. Gunn served as the voice director for the main actors.

Animation
Production was underway by the end of January 2023. Gunn said animation was a way to "tell stories that are gigantic" without a large budget. Animation studio Bobbypills worked on the series. By February 2024, the initial animatics had been finished and picture locked. Gunn said "elaborate animated finals" were being worked on. The series adheres to Gunn's mandate for a cohesive look for the DC Universe, so characters and locations can move between mediums and be familiar to audiences. The designers initially redesigned Belle Reve prison to be a "beautiful gothic locale on top of a hill", but Gunn told them that it had to match the "dull, boring building" design seen in The Suicide Squad. New locations, such as Frankenstein's mansion, feature designs closer to the original Belle Reve look.

Music
The series' theme song is "Moliendo Café" from Venezuelan artist Hugo Blanco. When developing the series, Gunn created a "musical mood-board" inspired by the works of Gogol Bordello and the Dresden Dolls.

Marketing
A making-of session and presentation for the series with Balak and Morales took place at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Gunn was unable to attend due to his filming schedule for Superman, but he introduced the presentation via a video message. Two storyboard sequences were shown along with character and location designs. Rafael Motamayor of /Film and Kambole Campbell of Animation Magazine both criticized Gunn's video message as boring and too focused on corporate strategy. They were more positive about the rest of the presentation and the footage that was shown, but expressed concern that the needs of the wider DCU were being put ahead of what was best for the series; Motamayor said the change from the new Belle Reve design to one more similar to The Suicide Squad was met with "palpable disappointment" during the presentation. They both praised other design elements. Campbell hoped the creative intentions of Balak and Bobbypills would come through in the final series with more prominence than the needs of corporate synergy.

Release
Creature Commandos is scheduled to premiere in December 2024, on the streaming service Max. It will be part of the DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.