Warner Bros. has released the first Superman: Red Son trailer for the animated adaptation of the DC comic of the same name. Originally announced at San Diego Comic-Con, Superman: Red Son will be the next DC animated feature, following Wonder Woman: Bloodlines and Batman: Hush. The voice cast for Superman: Red Son was officially revealed in September.
The word "Elseworlds" is a comic book term for DC stories taking place in alternate continuities. Elseworlds takes established DC characters and does something new with them. Most of the DC animated features are not based on Elseworlds stories, with the exception of a few, such as The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. The Dark Knight Returns takes place in a separate continuity, where an aged Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement. Meanwhile, Gotham by Gaslight reimagines Batman during the Victorian era with Jack the Ripper. Now, one of the most famous Elseworlds stories, Superman: Red Son, is getting the animated treatment. Superman: Red Son reimagines the Man of Steel as a soldier under the Soviet Union. Other DC characters also appeared in the story. The last major update for the animated adaptation was a picture of Russian Batman. Today, fans can finally see the trailer.
The first Superman: Red Son trailer has been released by IGN, showing some of the story, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and more. Check it out below.
Written by Mark Millar, Superman: Red Son remains a highly praised story in the DC lineup. Based on the trailer, the animated adaptation will accurately depict the events, from Wonder Woman breaking her own lasso, to Batman being a major threat to the Soviet's plans. Although this is the first official Superman: Red Son adaptation, the ideas behind it were utilized in Supergirl season 4, with a clone of Kara Zor-el becoming a Soviet Supergirl.
Superman: Red Son isn't the only animated Superman film releasing next year. There's also Superman: Man of Tomorrow, an original story. According to DC, the film will follow a younger version of the character "early in his career." Another DC animated film releasing in 2020 is Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, the sequel to Justice League Dark. The film will probably not feature Superman as a main character, due to the original film's plot point of Batman gathering supernatural-based characters, but time will tell. Before all that, Superman: Red Son will start off the year's DC animated slate. If the film does well, hopefully DC will look into adapting more Elseworlds stories.
Superman: Red Son will be released in early 2020.
Source: IGN