Superman: Red Son and Superman: Man of Tomorrow Animated Feature Films

[JAK]

Was there any more news on the "Man of Tomorrow" film? I feel like "War" and "Red Son" took over the convo, so just curious if I missed something.

[Vordan]

Was there any more news on the "Man of Tomorrow" film? I feel like "War" and "Red Son" took over the convo, so just curious if I missed something.

Nothing yet, we won’t hear more until after Apokolips War comes out.

[Frontier]

Nothing yet, we won’t hear more until after Apokolips War comes out.

There might be a press release before, but that won't be until May at the latest.

[stargazer01]

official cover art for the JL Dark: Apokolips War movie.

[JAK]

Nothing yet, we won’t hear more until after Apokolips War comes out.

Ah. Would that mean that "Man of Tomorrow" is the start of another animated universe, possibly? Since Apokolips War is something of an ending and MOT is supposed to be a beginning.. could be interesting!

[Vakanai]

Ah. Would that mean that "Man of Tomorrow" is the start of another animated universe, possibly? Since Apokolips War is something of an ending and MOT is supposed to be a beginning.. could be interesting!

Maybe - maybe not. Whether Apokolips War is the end of the shared universe or just the storyline dealing with Darkseid since JL War, who knows? Hell, even if the universe does continue MoT might still be set in its own separate universe.

[Superlad93]

Ah. Would that mean that "Man of Tomorrow" is the start of another animated universe, possibly? Since Apokolips War is something of an ending and MOT is supposed to be a beginning.. could be interesting!

Dispenser of Truth has a theory

A sudden theory regarding Superman: Man of Tomorrow: I think this is gonna be a Jon-as-Superman movie.



At the time they released that teaser, no one thought much of it beyond "wow, those buildings look kinda DCAU" given the Red Son teaser at the same time was similarly simple; at most maybe it was hiding character designs. Though don't those look a bit...futurey? And why would they do a Superman origin in the first place that wasn't an adaptation for brownie points, even if it was to be a reboot after Apokolips War, especially when last time they kicked off with a fully-formed League? They're not exactly the types for some inspired, prestige new take. They seemingly planned this further in advance than its contemporaries as well, but have released nothing on it other than that teaser image since July; why play coy about yet another origin? God knows they're not hiding t-shirt Superman.

Given that secrecy and the oddity of them doing a straightforward origin movie, that this'll apparently drop right around 5G's start, and that the only official description of it is as "a fully original story featuring a young Superman early in his career", I'm thinking this is kicking off a wave of successor hero movies to line up with the new continuity, same as the preexisting shared-universe DC Animated features roughly mirrored the New 52.

(My backup theory is that this'll be a rough adaptation of American Alien that they're retitling to avoid associations with the source material for Reasons.)

[Frontier]

It's really hard to tell at this stage, although I have extreme doubts about it being a Jon Kent Superman movie.

[stargazer01]

It's really hard to tell at this stage, although I have extreme doubts about it being a Jon Kent Superman movie.

yeah, especially if the current DC animated movie universe seems to be ending with the next JLD movie. A son of Superman movie needs better set up. I don't see casual Superman fans who don't know him care about it enough to buy.

[JAK]

Dispenser of Truth has a theory

Interesting! DC hasn't often been all that great with timing things, so I doubt it - but it's possible. A dual-push might help push 5G, if they could play it right.

[Superlad93]

Interesting! DC hasn't often been all that great with timing things, so I doubt it - but it's possible. A dual-push might help push 5G, if they could play it right.

Well, they've actually been fairly good at it back in the New 52 days (ended up syncing with the DCEU version of Justice League even), but they made the mistake of just wholesale adapting the comics, thus they had to wait for them to come out. If the idea here is to just put everyone on the same page in a general and thematic sense, and then sync up more directly as needed, then I think this'll work. Given the level of planning behind all of this, I imagine they have an idea of the look for the characters. And by the time the film comes out later in the year 5G will have come out from what I understand. They seem to be pushing hard for the October roll out for 5G.

And from what I remember hearing out the new boss that DC answers to, she was specifically given her job because she'd be all about promoting a sense of synergy. Yoda's knows more about this than me, but I think that's the idea.

[Yoda]

Pam Lifford came over from Disney's consumer products division and her current title is President of Global Brands and Experiences. The thought was that she wanted to have consistent "brands" across the lines so that consumers who come into contact with Superman from the CW see something recognizable in the comics, toys, etc.

I think Bleeding Cool or Comics Beat had a little nugget in their recent 5G coverage that indicated that the corporate side was into 5G for the specific reasoning that it could be carried over and marketed into animated movies. So while I am still skeptical of the possibility of a 5G movie, it definitely does not seem outside the realm of possibility.

[Frontier]

yeah, especially if the current DC animated movie universe seems to be ending with the next JLD movie. A son of Superman movie needs better set up. I don't see casual Superman fans who don't know him care about it enough to buy.

And these movies aren't really meant for casuals, at least to a significant extent in my opinion.

Now that I think about it, they might restart the universe and just rebuild the new continuity with in-continuity solo stuff.

But if this is truly the end...I will miss Rainn Wilson as Luthor, this version of Superboy, Lois, the Reborn suit, etc.

Kind of sucks this Superman just got the Fortress of Solitude and doesn't get to do anything with it.

Pam Lifford came over from Disney's consumer products division and her current title is President of Global Brands and Experiences. The thought was that she wanted to have consistent "brands" across the lines so that consumers who come into contact with Superman from the CW see something recognizable in the comics, toys, etc.

I think Bleeding Cool or Comics Beat had a little nugget in their recent 5G coverage that indicated that the corporate side was into 5G for the specific reasoning that it could be carried over and marketed into animated movies. So while I am still skeptical of the possibility of a 5G movie, it definitely does not seem outside the realm of possibility.

S-s-s-s-synergy .

You'd think they'd want more synergy with the standard versions, but I'm no marketing expert.

[Superlad93]

Pam Lifford came over from Disney's consumer products division and her current title is President of Global Brands and Experiences. The thought was that she wanted to have consistent "brands" across the lines so that consumers who come into contact with Superman from the CW see something recognizable in the comics, toys, etc.

I think Bleeding Cool or Comics Beat had a little nugget in their recent 5G coverage that indicated that the corporate side was into 5G for the specific reasoning that it could be carried over and marketed into animated movies. So while I am still skeptical of the possibility of a 5G movie, it definitely does not seem outside the realm of possibility.

Yup that's new boss I was thinking of.

From what I understand it also may extend to include movies and TV to some extent if Bleeding Cool is to be believed.

Lee's recent comments also seem to point towards it going beyond animation.

I kind of have a small theory in regards to TV. Apparently Superman getting a show was backdoor piloted in the Elseworlds crossover back in 2018. Around that time the idea behind the show is most probably known given the fact that Jon is teased. And around that time plans for 5G are in their infancy or thereabouts, yes? Then once Crisis hits 5G and all the plans for the comics are in full swing. I'm guessing the CW side more or less decided that they wanted to do a Jon more in the mold of Jordan Kent, but finding out that Jon now has to be rebranded as Superman in the comics and maybe beyond, they possibly came up with the twins idea leaving Jon to be the 'chip off the ol block' he is in the comics.

I could be wrong and reading too much into it. But that just makes sense to me given how strange it was that they didn't go twins to begin with, and Jon's image is likely a bit less up to interpenetration (in a drastic sense) by the individual divisions like Clark or Bruce would be.

[Frontier]

Yup that's new boss I was thinking of.

From what I understand it also may extend to include movies and TV to some extent if Bleeding Cool is to be believed.

Lee's recent comments also seem to point towards it going beyond animation.

I kind of have a small theory in regards to TV. Apparently Superman getting a show was backdoor piloted in the Elseworlds crossover back in 2018. Around that time the idea behind the show is most probably known given the fact that Jon is teased. And around that time plans for 5G are in their infancy or thereabouts, yes? Then once Crisis hits 5G and all the plans for the comics are in full swing. I'm guessing the CW side more or less decided that they wanted to do a Jon more in the mold of Jordan Kent, but finding out that Jon now has to be rebranded as Superman in the comics and maybe beyond, they possibly came up with the twins idea leaving Jon to be the 'chip off the ol block' he is in the comics.

I could be wrong and reading too much into it. But that just makes sense to me given how strange it was that they didn't go twins to begin with, and Jon's image is likely a bit less up to interpenetration (in a drastic sense) by the individual divisions like Clark or Bruce would be.

What would make you think they'd originally conceive of portraying Jon like they're depicting Jordan?