The roster of the animated collection known as DC Showcase is growing with the arrival of Constantine — The House of Mystery, an epilogue to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War in which the titular hero finds himself trapped in the eponymous haunted location and fending off demonic versions of his friends who are killing him on a loop.
Along with Constantine, the new DC Showcase collection includes three other shorts that previously came packaged with DC Animated films. Now fans can find Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth!, Blue Beetle and The Losers together in one Blu-ray package.
In anticipation of the collection's release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with director Matt Peters to discuss both Constantine — The House of Mystery and Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth!, how he crafted an epilogue for Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, and his long tenure with Warner Bros. Animation and more.
Screen Rant: I'm excited to talk about both of these shorts, but personally a little more about Constantine, because he's one of my favorite characters in the DC world. When did The House of Mystery development for that come about, because I know it takes place in the aftermath of Apokolips War and you were at the helm of that as well?
Matt Peters: Yeah, I co-directed that with Christina Sotta. We were working with James Tucker, and James was focusing on just trying to find a perfect little wrap up to his collection of films. It was such a monster movie to work on; it took two directors to make it happen. We shook hands, we were happy, we said, "Okay, we get it, we're done."
And just as I'm dusting myself off, I'm walking through the building and then Rick comes up and approaches me and said, "Hey, we got a short we want to do, House of Mystery, and it's gonna be John Constantine, picking up right where the other movie left off." I said, "Okay!"
They're the ones who figure that stuff out, I was happy to get the opportunity to work on a little epilogue for our movie.
You've worked on so many of these things before, but what was it like finding the visual style for this one? Because of all the different environments that John visits within the House of Mystery are so fascinating to watch.
Matt Peters: Well, for me, it was more [about] the style of the events. In terms of the storytelling, that's what I was focusing on. Having different ways to kill him or different ways to create a horror thing for him, and also throwing in a little bit of comedy.
But in terms of the actual work, Rick was in charge of making sure that the design had the look that he was looking for, and I think he was really trying to focus on carrying what we did with Apokolips War, but still create something unique for House of Mystery as well.
As someone who is somewhat familiar with all the worlds of the comics, what can we look forward to from that ending?
Matt Peters: I think that the best thing about Warner Bros. Animation is that we always really like to try to keep momentum moving forward with what we've got, even if we ended up shifting into a different universe. If we've got different, creative people working on it, I think we try to keep that spark alive. I think that the fans pick up on it; I think they like it. I think that's something that we're always trying to be aware of: we're trying to be aware of how to make the fans happy, and we're still finding ways to incorporate these characters. We focus on telling a story that we've got in front of us, and it works as the ending that we've got.
But I think that there's always a new opportunity. There's always a new creative team that's gonna come forward, and they're gonna find some opportunity to explore something even more. When that happens, it'll be a lot of fun to see what they can do. That's part of the fun of working with these characters: they're timeless, they're ageless, they keep going on, and we can keep playing with them as long as people are still interested in watching the movies.
I think Constantine has lent himself very well to the animated world, ever since City of Demons a few years ago. Kamandi is an interesting one, too, because that's a character that I had admittedly not heard of before the short and have done a little bit of research into since. How did the development of that one come about in which such a niche character was getting their own short?
Matt Peters: I think that, again, was another thing that Rick came and approached me [about]. He said that he had a short that he thought I would really like to work on, and he pitched me the idea of Kamandi. But we were going to do Kamandi looking and feeling exactly like a comic book from 1972. When I heard that, I said, "Try to get me off that! Are you kidding me, I would love to do that!"
Rick worked really hard with the designers who really hammered down a style. He knows his animation, he knows what's capable of the animation studios that we work with - and they were able to really create a look and a visual feel that feels like a comic book, which just blows my mind.
But for me, I got to work with the board guys, just trying to create that same atmosphere and storytelling that you see in a 1970s comic. It was kind of a marriage of both parts, but it's all Rick being the primary force of making that thing look as gorgeous as it did, and he did a wonderful job with the designers. It was his brainchild to make that thing happen, so I was just happy to be involved.
Now, were you as familiar with the character prior to Rick approaching you for the short?
Matt Peters: I was, but I didn't know the extent of the character, and I got to explore his history a little bit more. Because the minute he said to me, "Kamandi," I was like, "The Last Boy on Earth," and he's like, "Yeah!"
Of course, everybody knows Jack Kirby's work, so I have seen the comics from time to time, but I never read them in detail. This was just the chance to be able to sit down, go through the individual issues, read them and kind of absorb that style and that feel. Then examine for myself, "What muscles are we going to pull on emotionally to try to get that feeling to carry through into an animated short?"
Since Kamandi has only really ever been seen before in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, what was it like finding the right voice actor for the character?
Matt Peters: I believe Rick and Wes, our voice director, were the two who really found that together. They really found the casting and who they were considering.
I remember when they finally played his voice for me, I just was blown away. I heard the audition tape and I was like, "Oh my God, that's fantastic, it's on point." At that point, we started to adapt our boarding to match that kind of acting, and once we have that in place, it just helped strengthen the entire piece, because we could kind of focus on it, what that voice was gonna sound like.
When we finally got the voice and were able to actually incorporate that into the storyboards and into our movie, it's a perfect marriage, he was fantastic, he did such a great job.
I talked to Milo, who helmed the Blue Beetle and The Losers shorts for this showcase, and he mentioned that most of his direction came before the pandemic in the office. Was that the same for you, or was this remote job?
Matt Peters: I believe we were in the office. I don't think we did these during the pandemic. I could be wrong, but I think we were still in the studio. Milo did an outstanding job. I'm still angry at him, though, because he got to work on the Blue Beetle short, which I desperately would have loved to work on. [Laughs]
But not only did he do a great job, he did a great job on the other short as well. We were all in the same studio, so I was always able to kind of peek in and see what they were doing. And just feel more and more envious I didn't get a chance to work on it.
Since it was in the studio, what was it then like working with your various voice actors? You had Steve Blum, you had Matt Ryan, you had so many great people.
Matt Peters: It's great. Well some of the guys — I think that Matt Ryan was actually in New York when he was filming it — so sometimes they called in. It was pre-pandemic, and it was almost like working in the pandemic world. We would go to the studio, and we'd have a TV monitor set up and we'd see them. But it's just fantastic.
[Matt] throws himself on the role so well, and Wes does a great job directing them. It's just always fun. You feel like a fan listening to them.
With so many projects under your belt, at both the helm as well as storyboard and art department in the DC world, where do you see yourself going next with these characters? I know you have the Teen Titans Go! movie, but what else are you exploring?
Matt Peters: Honestly, I'm always working on something new. The Teen Titans Go! thing was tremendous fun to work on that. I got to work with Katie Rice on that; she was just incredible. It's always fun to just be able to work with these creative people. I get to work with Rick, I get to work with James Tucker.
That, for me, is honestly almost more fun than the characters themselves, because these guys are creative people, they spark my creativity, and they've ended up becoming friends, which is always great. The playground ends up being the comic book characters that we got. So really, as long as that's still in the mix, you can find me working on just about anything. [Chuckles]
Constantine — The House of Mystery is now available on Blu-ray and digital platforms with the other three shorts included.