James Gunn, of Guardians of the Galaxy and (for your horror fans) Slither fame, is now the co-head of DC Studios, alongside mega-producer Peter Safran. Luckily, alongside a Superman reboot and many other projects, the director-turned-executive will be embracing the weirder side of the DC Universe with Creature Commandos, an animated series that will see characters like Frankenstein getting in on the action. Now we know who will complete the ensemble, and Gunn has assembled an A-list cast.
Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) returns as Weasel, who viewers may know from The Suicide Squad. But that’s just the start. As reported by Collider, the cast also includes Frank Grillo (The Purge: Anarchy) as Rick Flag Sr., Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) as Princess Ilana Rostovic, Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) as The Bride, Zoe Chao (The After Party) as Nina Mazursky, Alan Tudyk (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil) as Dr. Phosphorus, David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Eric Frankenstein, and Steve Agee (The Suicide Squad) reprising his role as John Economos. Sean Gunn will also be pulling double duty as G.I. Robot..
That’s one heck of a lineup. The show itself will consist of seven episodes and picks up as Amanda Waller creates a black ops team out of monstrous prisoners. It’s presumed that Viola Davis will reprise her role as Waller for the show. Rather importantly, Gunn’s new vision for the DC Universe will see actors playing their roles across all media, including animation, TV, movies, and even video games. That being the case, he took to Twitter to confirm that, yes, Grillo (and presumably the rest of the cast) are in this in a potentially more significant way. “Happy to welcome Frank Grillo into the #DCU as Rick Flag Sr across all media,” Gunn said.
That means, if these characters show up elsewhere, like in that Swamp Thing movie James Mangold is making, these actors will play them, which is neat. Also of note, Grillo is playing Rick Flag Sr. DC fans may remember that Joel Kinnaman played Rick Flag Jr. in both Suicide Squad films. Gunn wrote all seven episodes of the series himself, which will be debuting on Max, aka the new streaming service that HBO Max is turning into come May. Yes, unfortunately, we’ve got another new streaming service to worry about. But Max is where the DC Universe will live from here on out.
Creature Commandos is expected to arrive in 2024 on the newly-branded Max streaming service.
