Hard to believe it’s been almost two years since DC Studios co-head James Gunn announced the first slate of film and television projects. It all begins with Creature Commandos, a seven-episode animated series about a covert team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. Ahead of the release of Creature Commandos, we had the pleasure of chatting with executive producer and showrunner Dean Lorey.
During our conversation, Lorey discussed how his work on the Harley Quinn adult animated led to his involved in this project as as well as how Creature Commandos sets the stage for Gunn’s vision for the future of the DC Universe.
Watch our video interview below:
Taimur Dar: You’ve been at Warner Bros. Animation for a number of years working on projects like Kite Man and Harley Quinn. James Gunn has made it no secret how much he loves Harley Quinn.
Dean Lorey: He was in it!
Taimur Dar: That’s right, he guest starred in season three. I’m sure that got you some brownie points but how did you come to be involved with Creature Commandos.
Dean Lorey: James had written the first four episodes before he was co-president of DC. It was a passion project of his. Yeah, he had been a fan of Harley. When he took over as co-president and decided to make this first, it was all through Warner Bros. Animation. Peter Girardi who was in charge of Harley and Kite Man was also the executive of Creature Commandos. I was there because I was running Kite Man season one and Harley season five. He said, “We need somebody to run this. James loves you [and] loves Harley.” I said, “Great. I would gladly do it.” That’s how I got into that. It was a surprise because I had never run a show I didn’t write. Luckily the scripts were great.
Taimur Dar: There are so many great Easter eggs and cameos for DC Comics fan. Particularly in episode three where we delve into the past of G.I. Robot. I’ll defer to you regarding how much you want to reveal. How much should viewers read into these cameos? Are any of these setting up potential spinoffs?
Dean Lorey: I wouldn’t read a ton into them. I will say that the series is considered canon. James was very specific about characters he wanted in particular scenes even if they’re just background. I think he was being very careful to make sure it would fit in with the world he was envisioning for his DCU. It doesn’t mean we’re going to see a show with a particular person.
Taimur Dar: Conversely, there are elements in Creature Commandos that will lead into some of the upcoming DC Studios projects like the Waller live-action series, the Superman film, and even the Paradise Lost series focusing on Themyscira. Obviously, James Gunn is overseeing all of this. How much coordination did you have with the other teams like the Superman film?
Dean Lorey: We got some designs from Superman to keep [it] consistent with what we were doing. So we got some of that. Outside of that, there wasn’t a ton in terms of us working with other shows. But the design of Belle Reve was based on the design form the movie. We were trying to keep things consistent like that.
Taimur Dar: On the subject of consistency, Frank Grillo is making his first appearance as Rick Flagg Sr. in this animated series. We know he’ll be reprising the character in the Superman film and Peacemaker season two. At the New York Comic Con panel, he mentioned he wasn’t able to replicate his hairstyle in Creature Commandos for live-action but hopes to in future projects. For Rick Flagg Sr. and other characters, how much if at all did you try to base the designs on the likeness of the actors?
Dean Lorey: We didn’t really use their likeness that much. I’m trying to think how to answer it. The actors that we cast for the show are hopefully actors that would do a live-action version. On some level I guess there was a little bleed through. If you look at them, there’s really not a human in the bunch. [Laughs]. The Bride is probably the closest and Rick Flagg obviously. Grillo does look a little like that except with black hair.
Taimur Dar: Being a James Gunn project, it’s no surprise that the soundtrack is topnotch. Much like Quentin Tarantino, Gunn is a master of using songs as part of the storytelling. The series features quite a bit of Eastern European punk rock like Gogol Bordello as well other genres from bands such as Dresden Dolls. Were there any challenges in getting the music or was it pretty painless?
Dean Lorey: It was painless and all of those song choices were in the script. All that was decided before we even started producing the episodes. Gogol Bordello, we see them in an episode.
Taimur Dar: Right! In the second episode with the flashback of The Bride and Frankenstein.
Dean Lorey: You saw that. It was very easy for those guys. They were excited to do it. It was kind of a breeze.
Taimur Dar: What I loved about the first season of Peacemaker is how it’s both self-contained but left enough open for a second season. I have a feeling for Creature Commandos it’s the same case where it stands on its own but if it does well enough, we could see a second season. Are there plans in motion for a second season, or is it a wait and see?
Dean Lorey: We very much want to do a second season. Right now, it’s dependent when James is going to have time to write it. We very much want to do a second season. You’ll see at the end of episode seven of season one some of our thoughts of what that might look like.
Creature Commandos will debut with two episodes on Thursday, December 5th on Max followed by one episode weekly until January 9th.
English (US) · 