The very first thing James Gunn’s DC Universe ever put on a screen wasn’t Superman or Batman. It was a squad of monsters — a reanimated bride, a mad scientist made of radioactive light, a were-weasel, a patriotic robot — and against all odds, “Creature Commandos” turned out to be one of the sharpest, meanest, funniest things DC has made in years. Now it’s coming back, and at this year’s Annecy animation festival in June, DC Studios pulled back the curtain on Season 2. The big takeaway: the roster is getting a monster-sized upgrade, and one of the new faces is King Shark.
DC brought concept art and early story details to its World’s Finest panel at Annecy, the animation world’s marquee gathering, and used the stage to introduce the shape of the second season. For a show that lives on the strange chemistry of its ensemble, the roster reveal is the whole ballgame — and this one shakes the lineup up in a way that should please anyone who fell for the first season’s gallows humor. Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for Creature Commandos Season 2 and the new roster DC Studios just revealed at Annecy.
It was a squad of monsters — a reanimated bride, a mad scientist made of radioactive light, a were-weasel, a patriotic robot — and against all odds, “Creature Commandos” turned out to be one of the sharpest, meanest, funniest things DC has made in years.”
Start with the headliner. King Shark (Sylvester Stallone) is joining the squad, with Stallone once again lending his growl to the man-eating apex predator he first voiced in “The Suicide Squad.” Nanaue is pure id — enormous, hungry, and not exactly a conversationalist — and dropping him into this particular group of misfits is a comedy engine waiting to happen. He brings crushing strength and a body count, and he’ll fit right in with a team that treats collateral damage as a personality trait.
He’s not arriving alone. The season adds Khalis, described as a gentle, thousand-year-old mummy whose bandages carry healing power — a soft-spoken medic in a unit that badly needs one — and Nosferata, a young winged vampire with fangs and attitude to spare, reportedly voiced by Sydney Chandler, though DC kept the casting loose at the panel. Between a shark, a mummy, and a vampire, Season 2 is doubling down on the classic-monster-movie DNA that made the first run feel like the Universal Monsters got drafted into a black-ops unit.
The returning core anchors all of it. The Bride (Indira Varma) steps up to lead the team this time, a promotion earned by the events of the first season, and she’s flanked by Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), the perpetually put-upon Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), and Weasel and G.I. Robot — both still voiced by Sean Gunn — with the patriotic little automaton getting a rounder, bulkier redesign. That’s a bench with real history now, which is what separates a second season from a pilot: these monsters have been through something together, and the show can start trading on it.
It’s worth remembering how much weight this cartoon quietly carries. “Creature Commandos” isn’t a spin-off or a side story — it’s canon, a full-fledged piece of the same DC Universe as the live-action films, and its characters can and do cross over. That’s the unusual promise of Gunn’s DCU: an adult animated show about C-list monsters counts every bit as much as a Superman movie, and the events here matter to the larger map. Animation isn’t the kids’ table in this universe. It’s part of the main course.
What made the first season land, and what Season 2 has to protect, is the tone — a blend of genuine brutality, deadpan comedy, and unexpected pathos that let you laugh at these creatures one minute and ache for them the next. The monsters are funny because they’re pathetic and moving because they’re monsters, and that balance is a hard trick to repeat. Adding a shark voiced by Rocky Balboa could tip the mix toward pure gag, or it could deepen the ensemble; the concept art suggests the show knows exactly which knife’s edge it’s walking.
The wait, admittedly, is the downside. Animation takes time, and Season 2 isn’t due until 2027, a long stretch to sit on a roster this fun. But the first season proved this team is worth waiting for, and a first look this confident — new monsters, a promoted lead, a returning cast, and a clear sense of humor about all of it — is a good sign the delay is about craft, not trouble.
For a corner of the DCU that started as the biggest gamble on the board — lead with the monsters, not the icons — “Creature Commandos” keeps proving the bet was right. Season 2 is stacking the squad higher, and if the Annecy reveal is any indication, DC’s weirdest show is about to get even weirder. Bring on the shark.
What Do You Think? Does adding King Shark and Sylvester Stallone’s growl strengthen the “Creature Commandos” ensemble, or risk turning the show’s careful mix of horror and comedy into pure slapstick? With The Bride now leading the team, where should Season 2 take her — and does a healer like Khalis change the squad’s entire dynamic? Now that DC is treating its animation as full canon, which “Creature Commandos” monster do you most want to see cross over into a live-action DCU project?
See you on the next binge!
