DEADMAN Animated Series Rumored To Be In Early Development At DC Studios

A new rumor doing the rounds online is claiming that an animated series focusing on Boston Brand, aka Deadman, is in early development at DC Studios...

By MarkCassidy - Aug 09, 2024 10:08 AM EST

Filed Under: Deadman

DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn promised that Creature Commandos would be the first of many DCU-based animated projects, and we may now know which character the next one will focus on.

According to Nexus Point News, an animated series centred around Deadman is in the early stages of development, though the site notes that no writers or scripts are currently in place and the show has yet to receive an official green light.

This wouldn't be the first time Deadman appeared in animated form, and the supernatural hero almost made his live-action debut on a couple of occasions. A CW series was in the works way back in 2011 before being shelved, and the character would have been part of the Justice League Dark roster in M3GAN director Gerard Johnstone's now defunct movie along with Swamp Thing, Constantine, and Zatanna.

"There was a lot of the conversations and jostling I had with the guys," the filmmaker told Screen Rant in a recent interview, "because they were like, 'Constantine's the main character.' I was like, 'No, Constantine's kind of the coolest character. But Zatanna is really the main character.' Because she's discovering her magical powers for the first time. But it was fun, man. The characters all went to hell to get Zatanna's dad."

Johnstone's script was only about halfway complete when he got word that the studio had decided not to move forward with the project.

"It was just a tough time for DC, I think. It was just like Justice League came out, didn't do what they wanted it to do. Suicide Squad didn't do what they wanted to do. And so I was just told that they don't want to spend money on another new movie with a bunch of characters no one's heard of, and I understand that. It was a shame."

Introduced in the pages of Strange Adventures back in the '60s, Boston Brand was a circus trapeze artist with the stage-named Deadman who was murdered during a performance by a mysterious assailant known as the Hook. Brand's spirit was then given the power to possess any living being by the Hindu god Rama Kushna, and he set about attempting to solve the mystery of his murder and bring his killer to justice.

Assuming this project comes to fruition, whoever ends up voicing Deadman will likely play the character in live-action if he ever does make the jump to the big screen.

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25 Comments

FireandBlood - 8/9/2024, 10:14 AM

Gunn’s plan:

TheClungerine - 8/9/2024, 11:47 AM

@FireandBlood - knowing gunn, that's probably his nut and not spaghetti.

😒

FireandBlood - 8/9/2024, 12:57 PM

@DeadClunge -

BillyBatson1000 - 8/9/2024, 10:22 AM

THIS should be a film or live action TV series.

Also: it's impossible to get excited about any DC animated project when their quality control is in the BIN.

Clintthahamster - 8/9/2024, 10:59 AM

@BillyBatson1000 - Their recent output has been abysmal, but we haven't seen anything produced under the Gunn/Safran regime yet. I'll remain cautiously optimistic until Creature Commandos drops.

BillyBatson1000 - 8/9/2024, 11:06 AM

@clintthahamster - Their most recent stuff is more like 'motion comics' than animation. It's sad. They're wrecking their reputation and any future buzz.

Clintthahamster - 8/9/2024, 1:00 PM

@BillyBatson1000 - Agreed. I have to believe that it can't get any worse than Crisis on Infinite Earths. Fingers crossed!

BillyBatson1000 - 8/9/2024, 1:04 PM

@clintthahamster - Crossed, bro!

SuperJefe - 8/9/2024, 10:26 AM

I’m a Deadman fan, but he’s one of those characters where writers tend to stray into whacky territory

ItsNotForMeWahh - 8/9/2024, 10:33 AM

@SuperJefe @ObserverIO - I am not familiar with this content, do either of you have a recommended starting point?

ObserverIO - 8/9/2024, 1:21 PM

@ItsNotForMeWahh -

Deadman Book One
(I bought this on Comixology years ago. I quit when they moved to Amazon, but you can probably still get it there).

There's a handful of these books. It's mostly bronze age stuff. On the other hand, if you just wanna skip to the more modern dark/copper age stuff, then I would recommend this collection.

ItsNotForMeWahh - 8/9/2024, 1:25 PM

@ObserverIO - Fantastic! As always, I appreciate you!

Clintthahamster - 8/9/2024, 1:26 PM

@ObserverIO @ItsNotForMeWahh - There are also lots and lots of places on the internet where such things can be obtained illicitly . . . not that I would ever recommend something like that, no sir, not me!

ItsNotForMeWahh - 8/9/2024, 1:27 PM

@clintthahamster -

ObserverIO - 8/9/2024, 10:27 AM

The last Deadman article was 2011, lol.

Hope they do the origin and some of the Neal Adams stuff and try to do some of the Kelley Jones stuff. Hope the show is both dark AF and light AF.

Urubrodi - 8/9/2024, 10:33 AM

He is a cool character, but doesn't really feel like DC has an actual plan. Just doing a bunch of random projects, which is fine if they are good, but if the idea is to create a cohesive interconnected universe maybe not the best idea.

AleSir19 - 8/9/2024, 4:52 PM

@Urubrodi - I am a filmmaker, film director actually. What i can tell you is that from a cinematic historic stand point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been (until now) the only narrative approach to adapt a comic lore in a franchise of films.

But what is clear is that is not the only way, that is the main issue from an historic stand point that in the future a lot of film studies will clearly approach and study.

How for almost 15 years, one single studio, one single entity had an entire monopoly around a genre, that is just like if all film Noir or adventure films where made by one single studio.

It is just like what Universal did with the monsters, being the sole output and creator of the film archetypes of most of them for almost 20 years, before Europe and the rest of B Filmmakers had a say in the matters.

But what i mean is that Marvel has created and put his spin around a approach, but if you read comics, you clearly should know there are dozens if not trillions of narrative ways to create a "cohesive" stream of stories and not all of them need to be or follow the single approach that Marvel made.

More when even Marvel in Phase 4-Phase5-Phase 6 or whatever Phase this bloody shit is right now... Has become, Marvel approach to storytelling in film change, Phase 1 had an approach, Phase 2 had another, now Phase 3 had an evolution of that and Phase 4 oh boy was crazyness.

But now Phase 5 or 6 or whatever it is, has become just crazy shit, they are mixing all, using the multiverse, like i say, the comics have dozens of ways of bringing together characters, story arcs, elements and even cinematic styles together.

TheVisionary25 - 8/9/2024, 10:40 AM

Cool!!.

Deadman’s an underrated character so introducing him via animation so then he can cross over into live action is a good idea..

My picks for the role are either Michael Rosenbaum , Aaron Paul or Wes Bentley

BobGarlen - 8/9/2024, 10:44 AM

I think this is a role that would be spectacular for Michael Rosenbaum.

ProfessorWhy - 8/9/2024, 11:11 AM

@BobGarlen -
✅️ Bald
✅️ Gunn's Friend

BobGarlen - 8/9/2024, 11:38 AM

@ProfessorWhy - Talented Actor & Voice Actor could probably be tacked onto that.

FlixMentallo21 - 8/9/2024, 2:52 PM

@BobGarlen - Not to mention he previously voiced the character on Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

grif - 8/9/2024, 11:15 AM

barely works as a one shot character in other shows.

GeneralZod - 8/9/2024, 11:40 AM

It's not happening until it's officially announced, but, still, it's good to have such a great character in the conversation again.

HulkisHoly - 8/9/2024, 1:36 PM

@GeneralZod -

Agreed. Everyone is so negative here but if Gunn/Safran pump out quality, I’d love see Deadman (a very underutilized DC character) gets some love.

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DEADMAN Animated Series Rumored To Be In Early Development At DC Studios

A new rumor doing the rounds online is claiming that an animated series focusing on Boston Brand, aka Deadman, is in early development at DC Studios...

Deadman Getting His Own Television Show!

Guillermo Del Toro Doing Deadman Before The Hobbit