I deeply apologize in advance for rambling. If you want a TL;DR, read the last two paragraphs.

Today, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three releases on digital, marking the end of the Tomorrowverse story arc, as well as the end of an era of DC animation.

In 2007, DC Comics, alongside Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Home Video, announced the start of a new franchise of direct-to-video animated movies, called “DC Universe Animated Original Movies”. Starting with Superman: Doomsday, the movie line adapted many popular comic storylines, such as “The Death of Superman”, “The Dark Knight Returns”, and “The New Frontier”, aimed at comic fans who wanted to see their favorite stories come to life on screen. Or, as one Blu-ray.com user so aptly put it, “These are harmless direct-to-video features aimed at a specific audience that are probably cheap to produce and bring in enough revenue to justify their existence.”

Unlike earlier animated DC films, the direct-to-video line is aimed at a more adult audience, featuring more profane language, more sexual and suggestive content, and harsher violent content. Most of the films are given a PG-13 rating, though a few have gotten PG ratings, and sometimes even an R rating.

For a while, the direct-to-video films were all standalone and did not share continuity with each other (with the exception of Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, which was a sequel to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and Justice League: Doom, which was a sequel to Justice League: Crisis on Two Eaths), but that all changed in 2013, when Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox was released, kicking off a new shared universe called the “DC Animated Movie Universe”, or DCAMU for short. Some may argue that the DCAMU truly started in 2014 with Justice League: War, with Flashpoint acting as a prologue. Regardless, the DCAMU was made to tie into the then-recent New 52 comic storyline, with Justice League: War being an adaptation of *Justice League: Origin", and the next film in the DCAMU, Son of Batman, was based on the New 52 comic storyline of the same name.

Eventually, after the New 52 ended in 2016, the DCAMU was still going strong, and even started adapting storylines that were not in the New 52 continuity, most notably the two-parter film The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen (one of the few DTVs to actually get a limited theatrical release!), and Batman: Hush. But due to the lower sales, the aforementioned end of the New 52, and a general desire to move on from the DCAMU, they decided to end the DCAMU in 2020 with Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.

Later in 2020, a new shared universe of animated movies was created, starting with Superman: Man of Tomorrow. Though the new continuity did not receive an official name, fans were quick to dub it the “Tomorrowverse”. Compared to the DCAMU, which lasted for 7 years and 15 films, the Tomorrowverse felt more rushed with only 10 films (7 if we count the multi-parters as one film) in 4 years. As stated earlier, the Tomorrowverse is coming to an end with Crisis Part Three.

A “Crisis on Infinite Earths” animated trilogy had been rumored to be in the works since late 2021. It was officially announced, alongside the Watchmen two-parter, around this time last year. Earlier in 2023, newly-appointed co-CEO of DC Studios James Gunn announced that the new DC Universe would span across multiple mediums, including films, TV, animation, and games, which grew concern for the future of the DCUAOM line. Gunn stated that animated movies would continue under the Elseworlds label, and while it’s unclear how much was truly planned ahead, releasing the Crisis trilogy right before the new DCU kicks off with Creature Commandos seems a bit on-the-nose.

Anyway, Crisis Part Three will feature cameos from the DCAU, DCAMU, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Super Friends, and many more. It will also be the final time we hear Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and The Joker, with Conroy having recorded his lines before his death in 2022, and Hamill announcing that he would be retiring from the Joker role after Conroy’s death.

Does this mean that there will be no more direct-to-video movies? Unlikely. WB has made hundreds of DTV projects, and they seem to be making money, so I see no reason why they would stop completely. Besides, we’ve got Watchmen Chapters I and II coming up, along with Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League, but beyond that, they haven’t announced any new projects. We’ll just have to wait for Comic-Con in a few days for them to announce new DTVs, if there are any at all.

I would certainly hate to see the DTVs go, but if this truly is the end, then at least they went out with a bang. Whatever the futute holds for the DC Universe Animated Original Movie line, it’s been a fun ride.