Wait … you want me to what? Tell you how to watch ALL of the DC animated movies? That’s like coming up with a watch order for the complete works of Shakespeare (assuming that “reading” is really just watching words on a page). That’s gonna be a couple of MONTHS worth of lewd jokes and singular they pronouns. While the DC Animated Universe is (sadly) lacking in those departments, there’s WAY more ground to cover there in comparison to the Bard. After all, Shakespeare only wrote 38 plays. A paltry number in comparison to the DCAU’s 51 movies. So how are you going to watch more movies than Shakespeare wrote plays? Grab your reading glasses, ’cause I’ll tell you.
How to watch the DC Animated Universe in order
TRICK SUBHEADING. The DC Animated Universe doesn’t HAVE an order. At least in the beginning, it didn’t. When the DC Animated Universe was starting out, Warner Bros. mostly released stand-alone movies like Superman: Doomsday, Wonder Woman, and Batman: Under the Red Hood. That, or the studio made itsy-bitsy little line-ups like Year One and the two-part Dark Knight Returns. There is no order to watch these. Just have at them. You could watch them chronologically, or you could just pick which ones you’re most interested in. Lucky you! You get the freedom to choose!
But in 2013, the DC Animated Universe decided to wrench that freedom AWAY from viewers and release an unbroken line of movies that made up a 16-episode mega-arc. This arc starts with Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and ends with 2020’s Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. What Marvel did with live-action movies, DC did with animated ones. Here’s how to watch them in order:
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
- Justice League: War
- Son of Batman
- Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
- Batman vs. Robin
- Batman: Bad Blood
- Justice League vs. Teen Titans
- Justice League Dark
- Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
- Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
- The Death of Superman
- Constantine: City of Demons
- Reign of the Supermen
- Batman: Hush
- Wonder Woman: Bloodlines
- Justice League Dark: Apokolips War
The DC Universe animated original movies have returned to standalone films ever since, like Batman: Soul of the Dragon and Injustice. However, they have also begun setting up the Tomorrowverse, which includes Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Justice Society: World War II, the two Long Halloween films, and Green Lantern: Beware My Power. So you could watch those in the order I just mentioned them! The latest installment in the Tomorrowverse is Legion of Super-Heroes, which tells a whole new storyline. And finally, DC released the standalone Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham. Pull a Shakira and watch it whenever, wherever.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Animation)
