Mister Miracle Escapes Development Hell

Jack Kirby’s super escape artist from Apokolips has been on animated series before. At last, though, after bouncing around DC Films and DC Studios, Mister Miracle has found a new home on Earth that just might fit into a larger continuity. Might. Based on Tom King and Mitch Gerad’s award-winning Mister Miracle comics miniseries, Mister Miracle has been greenlit as an adult animated series. From the same production arm as Creature Commandos and with King as showrunner, the series has not yet entered full production.

But it will. One thing that has been consistent about the DC Studios age is that projects aren’t announced until they’re confident it’s happening. It’s an important distinction from the missteps of DC Films, which was a different division of Warner Bros. Like Paul Masson Winery, DC Studios serves no announcement before its time.

Here’s how Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios describe it:

No prison can hold him. No trap can contain him. He is Scott Free, the worldwide celebrity sensation known as Mister Miracle, and he is the greatest escape artist who ever lived. But can he pull off the ultimate trick — and escape death itself?

Something has gone horribly wrong with the perfect life that Scott and his warrior wife Big Barda have built for themselves on Earth. With war raging between their home worlds of Apocalypse and New Genesis, Scott’s cruel adoptive father Darkseid seems to have finally captured the Anti-Life Equation — the ultimate weapon that will give Darkseid total dominance over the universe.

As the mountains of bodies on both sides grow ever higher, only Mister Miracle can stop the slaughter and restore peace. But the terrible power of the Anti-Life Equation may already be at work in his own mind, warping his reality, exposing his long-buried pain, and shattering the fragile happiness he’s found with the woman he loves.

And so begins the odyssey of Scott Free, Mister Miracle: a harrowing, hilarious, heart wrenching journey across the pitfalls of the ordinary and extraordinary as the son of God raised by the devil tries to save his family, his world, and maybe even himself.

artwork presumably by Mitch Gerads, courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios

And now, the warnings:

Though it seems likely that this show will end up on HBO Max, that is yet undetermined. Like a few animated Batman projects, it could end up on Prime Video or another streaming service. Which also means…
It may or may not tie into James Gunn’s larger DC Universe plans. Just because it has many of the team from Creature Commandos working on it, this could be a series meant to stand alone and bring a well-regarded take on the character up to 2026. See My Adventures with Superman, which is pretty terrific.
That said, it could be in continuity, as King is also a producer on Green Lanterns, which is part of the DC Studios canon. For all we know in terms of production, this could hit near the end of Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. And Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav recently doubled down on the idea of (at least) a 10 year plan.

We’ve heard exciting news like this before, but really, I do think this 10 year plan will stick.

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