Developed by Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett, Superman: The Animated Series aired on Kids’ WB from 1996 to 2000. It was the second animated series in the DC Animated Universe and received critical appreciation for the performances by the voice actors, writing, maturity, and the touch of modernization in Superman’s comic book mythos. Butch Lukic, who directed three episodes of season three of Superman: The Animated Series, addressed the fate of Kingdom Come.
Kingdom Come is a miniseries published by DC Comics under the Elseworlds imprint. Written by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, the story is set in an alternate future of the DC Universe. The story follows a battle between the new generation of heroes and the Justice League, which determines the future of the planet. Fans have been waiting for a movie adaptation of Kingdom Come, and now Butch Lukic explains why it hasn’t happened yet.
Superman: The Animated Series‘ director Butch Lukic reveals the reason why Kingdom Come didn’t come live on-screen
Ardent fans of DC Comics have long wished to see the adaptation of Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come, but due to unfortunate reasons, the project never saw the light of day. According to ComicBook, in conversation with ScreenRant, producer of Justice League: Warwold Jim Krieg shared when asked about the project:
“Well, we’ll put it in the hopper.”
Butch Lukic, who is known for directing three episodes of Superman: The Animated Series added,
“We originally talked about Kingdom Come after this, but changing regimes, we couldn’t go forward with anything like that. They might do it in the future with the New World, but that was one thing we talked about as an obvious possibility to continue.”
Lukic continued that he thinks adapting graphic novels with a lot of stuff in them is challenging, but when one considers taking two miniseries, a better story can be made.
Bruce Timm explains why Kingdom Come is challenging to adapt
The veteran animator Bruce Timm also shared his views on why he thinks Kingdom Come is a challenging graphic novel to adapt. He said,
“The one that we hear all the time is Kingdom Come, and I have to crush everyone’s dream every single time because it’s just not within the scope of what we can do with these movies.”
Timm added that the main thing is that people remember the look from Kingdom Come beyond its story, adding that it was Alex Ross, breaking big, doing photo-realistic superheroes. He noted that if they attempted to make the animated version of Kingdom Come, it would not look like that.
Bruce Timm also stated that there is not enough money to adapt a look like that, which concludes that there is no point in making one.
In November 2022, DC Studios’ co-CEO, James Gunn, who is currently busy with Superman, teased on his social media about Kingdom Come. He shared one of the most iconic images from the storyline and his Superman, stating,
“Making plans.”
Fans were excited to see if Gunn’s Superman, starring David Corenswet, would have a connection to Kingdom Come. The eagle-eyed fans mentioned that the story of the comic book revolves around an older Kryptonian [Superman] exiting his retirement and reassembling the Justice League to restore order, which meant that the superhero is older and James Gunn has starred David Corenswet as the title character, who is in his 30s.
James Gunn didn’t react much to the rumors about him adapting Kingdom Come, but according to The Direct, Superman will take inspiration from the Kingdom Come storyline, but on a surface level.
Superman: The Animated Series is available to stream on HBO Max.
