DC Showcase Returns With 5 New Shorts; Compilation To Debut in 2020
by Erik Amaya
DC Showcase was a fun idea. Instead of devoting all the resources required to make a 76-minute DC Universe Animated Original Movie, members of the production staff would break off and devise interesting — and out of continuity — tales with some of the company’s lesser known characters. Well, at least lesser known at the time. Each short was released alongside the regularly scheduled Original Movie in a throwback to the days when short films preceded features in the movie theaters. The Spectre short was perhaps the most memorable, with the longer Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam, serving as the marquee story when the films were compiled for a home video release.
And thanks to Warner Home Entertainment’s decision to commission another round of DC Showcase shorts, we’ve learned the first set was released 9 years ago!
According to Newsarama, the new DC Showcase will feature shorts focused on Sgt. Rock, Adam Strange, Death, The Phantom Stranger and an “innovative” telling of Batman: Death in the Family in a longer-format short. Like Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam, it will serve as the anchor piece of the subsequent DC Showcase shorts compilation to be released in 2020. Familiar DC Universe Animated names like Bruce Timm, Sam Liu, and Butch Lukic will write, produce and/or direct the shorts with actors Karl Urban and Jamie Chung voicing Sgt. Rock and Death.
Other cast members include Malcolm McDowell, Jerry O’Connell, Linda Hamilton, Gary Cole, Alyssa Milano, and the final recording of the late James Garner.
Considering how interesting the original DC Showcase shorts were, we have high hopes for this round. The Sgt. Rock, Adam Strange, and Phantom Stranger shorts are original stories, but Death will be an animated telling of the landmark 1993 miniseries Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo. It will definitely be interesting to see how they adapt and modernize that story.
The new DC Showcase shorts will be released throughout 2019 and into 2020.
