Absolute Batman, DC’s comic book sensation, is heading to the screen.
The comic is being adapted as an animated series and will have the comic’s creators, writer Scott Snyder and artist Nick Dragotta, involved with its development.
The series is one of three animated projects that show a growing DC-oriented animated slate and was part of a joint DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation presentation at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The showcase featured DC Studios co-chairman and co-CEO Peter Safran and Warners Animation president Sam Register alongside Warner Animation artists who shared first looks and creative insights into the next wave of DC animation.
Also making news was DC’s first anime series, Joker: Laugh Riot, being greenlit and a new series centered on superdog Krypto going into development.
Absolute Batman, the comic, reimagined the Caped Crusader from the ground up when it ushered in the Absolute line of comics in late 2024. Bruce Wayne only lost one parent, not two. He was a blue collar worker from the projects, not a moneyed kid from one of Gotham City’s wealthiest families. And he was jacked, a hulking man who was not afraid to drop kick a kid who was part of a gang of evil doers.
The series has sold more than six million copies while Absolute Batman has gone No. 1 through 11 printings. The comic, and the line, have helped DC overtake Marvel in marketshare for the first time this century and made superstars out of Dragotta and other artists. And this week, it was revealed it’s getting the Funko treatment.
Snyder will serve as executive producer and showrunner, with Dragotta as producer.
‘Joker Laugh Riot’
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation
Joker is being executive produced by longtime DC animation vet Jim Krieg, who worked on the recent adaptations of DC classics Watchmen and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Yasuhuro Aoki is directing while SOLA Entertainment of Japan is working with Warner Animation and DC Studios. The project has yet been set with a network.
In what sounds like a compelling hook, the story sees the Clown Prince of Crime becoming a variation of his archnemesis, a detective solving a killing. The logline revealed at Annecy states, “When Batman is murdered, the Joker launches a ruthless crusade through Gotham’s underworld to find the killer who took away his greatest adversary. But as his violent quest for answers pushes him closer towards vigilante than villain, Joker is forced to confront the truth that without Batman, he doesn’t know who he is.”
‘Krypto’
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation
Finally, Warners and DC Studios have set C.H. Greenblatt (SpongeBob SquarePants), another animation vet, to exec produce an untitled Krypto series. The canine has been in the spotlight as he has appeared in last year’s Superman and plays a key role in Supergirl.
The logline states, “When he’s not hanging out with Superman or Supergirl, Krypto tags along with a gang of misfit criminal wannabes who live down the block, and they soon discover he’s a ball of destructive, lovable energy worse than any of them! As he follows them into misadventures and poorly laid plans, Krypto’s pure nature slowly ends up redeeming them, whether they want it or not.”
Warner Animation and DC have several projects on deck, among them season two of Batman: Caped Crusader and the upcoming Batman: Knightfall.
