Creature Commandos not solely kicked off the DCU in spectacular trend with a brand new forged of nice characters, but it surely additionally did an distinctive job establishing a lived-in fictional universe. Along with the good forged of characters that made up the Creature Commandos, it additionally launched teases for loads of different DC characters on the horizon. Batman, Surprise Lady, and Sgt. Rock had been only a few names teased in a seven-episode animated sequence. But, one DC character, or characters, that Creature Commandos teased is perhaps fulfilling a deliberate DC adaptation that has been in growth at Warner Bros. for over a decade. It really predates the DCU’s predecessor, the DCEU’s first entry, Man of Metal. The characters in query are the Steel Males.
The Steel Males won’t be DC’s most well-known group of heroes, however like The Guardians of the Galaxy at Marvel, they actually have big-screen potential. Two totally different movie variations have been tried at Warner Bros., and each occasions, it has been caught up within the fixed behind-the-scenes modifications within the management of DC and father or mother firm Warner Bros. Whereas nothing is ready in stone (or steel ought to we are saying), Creature Commandos may need hinted that The Steel Males may lastly be on their solution to the DCU.
- Launch Date
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December 5, 2024
- Solid
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Indira Varma
, Sean Gunn
, Alan Tudyk
, Zoe Chao
, David Harbour
, Frank Grillo
, Peter Serafinowicz
, Jake Tapper
, Tony Cavalero
, Viola Davis
, Maria Bakalova
, Anya Chalotra
, Flula Borg
, Michael Rooker
, Robbie Daymond
, Keith Ferguson
, Piotr Michael
, Derek Phillips
, Maury Sterling
, Paul Ben-Victor
, Joe Zieja
, Steve Agee
, Stephanie Beatriz
, Linda Cardellini
, Keston John - Seasons
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1
The Steel Males and their creator, Will Magnus, had been created by author Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru and debuted Showcase #37 within the spring of 1962. Created as a last-minute filler story, the Steel Males are established as being a complicated type of robotics created by scientist Will Magnus. The six Steel Males are named after their corresponding steel alloy and have personalities and powers related to that steel.
- Gold: The chief of the group, who can stretch his kind virtually infinitely.
- Platinum: The only feminine member of the group who generally goes by Tina and is in love along with her creator. She can also flip components of her physique into filaments.
- Iron: The sturdy man that possessed tremendous power.
- Mercury: He has the power to soften and go by means of small areas, with the power to soften tied into his hot-headed nature.
- Lead: Recognized for being loyal and protecting, explaining his potential to defend his mates however turning components of his physique into literal shields.
- Tin: The smallest member of the group, typically insecure and possessing the identical powers as Platinum.
Whereas the Steel Males had been mildly standard once they first debuted, even getting their very own bi-monthly comedian within the Sixties, the title was canceled after a few years. For the primary 20 points, the characters did not even exist within the DC Universe however in their very own actuality. Nevertheless, they had been folded into the DC canon and have become background and cameo characters. Regardless of a short try at reviving the idea within the Nineties, the Steel Males was a largely forgotten and missed group that appeared to characterize the brilliant, optimistic Silver Age of DC Comics in a gritty fashionable period that was extra centered on anti-heroes.
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Beginning across the 2000s, the Steel Males and their creator, Will Magnus, began to get extra of a push. The group was a part of the enduring 2005/2006 storyline Infinite Disaster. Artist Alex Ross appears to have a very fondness for the group as a future mixed model of the Steel Males named Alloy seems in Kingdom Come with artwork by Ross and written by Mark Waid. Ross additionally featured the Steel Males in Ross’s restricted sequence Justice, a 12-part non-continuity Justice League story that’s impressed by The Superfriends animated sequence. The Steel Males additionally appeared within the standard animated sequence Batman: Courageous and the Daring.
The brand new decade noticed a brand new period for The Steel Males. In 2013, the group obtained a brand new origin story within the New 52 continuity of the DC Universe within the pages of Justice League throughout The Perpetually Evil storyline. In 2019, one of many final issues former editor-in-chief at DC Comics Dan DiDio labored on was a 12-issue Steel Males miniseries. This push within the 2010s, particularly, corresponds with Warner Bros. eyeing the Steel Males because the leads of their very own potential film, one which was introduced only one yr earlier than their New 52 origin was revealed.
In 2010, Warner Bros. started growth on a reboot of Superman and put a few of their largest names on the challenge, together with The Darkish Knight trilogy director Christopher Nolan because the movie’s producer; Batman Begins screenwriter David S. Goyer penning the script and 300 and Watchmen director Zack Snyder on the helm. Man of Metal was slated for launch on June 14, 2013, with the primary teaser trailer arriving 11 months early throughout screenings of The Darkish Knight Rises in July 2012. Popping out shortly after The Avengers, Man of Metal was being positioned as the beginning of a brand new shared universe for DC Comics that might rival the MCU after 2011’s Inexperienced Lantern dropped the ball.
Nevertheless, one yr earlier than Man of Metal opened, it was introduced that Warner Bros. was starting work on The Steel Males. Much more thrilling, they landed director Barry Sonnenfeld to helm the film. Sonnenfeld had made a reputation for himself within the early Nineties, transferring from the Coen Brothers cinematographer to being a profitable filmmaker in his personal proper, having directed 1991’s The Addams Household and its 1993 sequel The Addams Household Values. He additionally directed 1995’s comedy Get Shorty and the blockbuster smash hit Males in Black in 1997. Regardless of having a tough run with films like Wild Wild West, Males in Black II, and RV, Sonnenfeld appeared like the right particular person to adapt The Steel Males as a film and appeared to point a special sort of superhero film.
Sonnfeld’s adaptation of The Addams Household and Males in Black confirmed that he might take fantastical premises and switch them into trendy comedies that attraction to a broad viewers. Regardless of Males in Black being a sci-fi summer time blockbuster, it has little in the way in which of conventional motion scenes and depends extra on comedy that’s enhanced with some visible results. Sonnenfeld spoke about his model of Steel Males in 2021 in an interview with ComicBookMovie and mentioned:
“You realize, it’s humorous as a result of I’m creating Steel Males with Warner Bros. We’re actively engaged on a remedy for that. For me, it’s not a lot a superhero factor as it’s world-building. If you happen to have a look at the work I’ve finished, whether or not it’s The Addams Household, Males in Black, Pushing Daisies, Schmigadoon!, or A Sequence of Unlucky Occasions, it’s all about making a world. An uncommon, barely off-kilter quirky, totally different type of world; that’s what I really like doing. “It’s not particularly, essentially superhero, however even in Steel Males, that I’m creating, it’s going to be a really particular type of world. It’s a real-world as a result of I at all times like issues to be reality-based, however barely with a tilt to that. It began with The Addams Household which is each actual however barely pushed.”
It seems like Steel Males would have been extra akin to a trendy, high-concept comedy than an motion film. A film centered on an eccentric scientist making six synthetic intelligences who’re making an attempt to grasp the world round them and sure entering into wacky journey sounds just like the superhero film model of, say, Alvin and the Chipmunks or The Smurfs, however really good. It actually would have been a change of tempo from the action-oriented superhero films of the time and will have been a pleasant shake-up within the style. Had the film gotten on monitor, it might have been launched in 2014 or 2015, in that three-year hole between Man of Metal and Batman v. Superman: Daybreak of Justice that might have helped develop the DCU.
The Steel Males film by no means obtained off the bottom for some unknown purpose. The challenge was name-dropped by then DC President Diane Nelson in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter the month after Man of Metal opened in theaters, notably one week earlier than Zack Snyder would announce Batman v. Superman: Daybreak of Justice at 2013’s San Diego Comedian-Con. She talked about Steel Males alongside initiatives like The Sandman (later became a tv present), Fables, Justice League, and Aquaman. Regardless of years of no progress and the DCEU present process so many modifications following Man of Metal, Sonnenfeld reportedly was nonetheless connected to direct Steel Males as late as 2021.
Two months after Sonnenfeld spoke about his deliberate Steel Males film, it was introduced {that a} separate animated Steel Males film was in growth at Warner Bros., although it was by no means confirmed if it was as an alternative of or being made alongside Sonnenfeld’s deliberate live-action adaptation. This animated movie model can be directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, two of crucial administrators in Disney’s historical past.
The duo began the Disney Renaissance with The Little Mermaid and adopted it up with the box-office smash hit Aladdin. They continued in hand-drawn animation with Hercules and Treasure Planet, with the latter being one of many largest bombs on the studio. Nevertheless, the duo’s first CGI animated movie was Moana, a contemporary Disney basic that has change into probably the most streamed film on Disney+.
Musker formally retired from Walt Disney Animation in 2018 and seemingly introduced his collaborator Clements to work on Steel Males for Disney’s largest competitor, Warner Bros. Clements and Musker had been introduced to be producing The Steel Males film, with the choice open for them to direct it. They’d written a remedy for the movie and had been engaged on the script with Celeste Ballard. Ballard’s credit embody the Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke-led revenge comedy Do Revenge, and he’s one in all six credited screenwriters on Area Jam: A New Legacy.
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The film was initially set to be overseen by Allison Abbate, the previous Govt Vice President of Warner Animation Group, however she stepped down from her place in August 2022 following the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc. into Warner Bros. Discovery. Beneath Abbate, it seems Steel Males was a standalone animated movie like different DC theatrical titles she oversaw, like Teen Titans Go! To the Films and DC’s League of Tremendous-Pets. Two months after Abbate stepped down from her place, James Gunn and Peter Safran had been appointed the brand new heads of DC Studios. In January 2023, James Gunn outlined Chapter One in all his DC Universe (DCU), which included a mixture of animated sequence and live-action movies.
There was no phrase on Musker and Clements’ animated Steel Males movie or the live-action model by Barry Sonnenfeld since late 2021. There’s a good likelihood each films had been canceled as a result of following David Zaslav’s appointment to the pinnacle of the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery, he began making drastic cuts to DC’s slate, from canceling The Surprise Twins film that was about to start filming to deciding to by no means launch the completed Batgirl film for a tax write off.
Regardless of The Steel Males not being a part of James Gunn’s preliminary DC plans, that does not imply there may be not one thing within the works. Movies based mostly round Clayface, Sgt. Rock and the Robin-led animated movie Dynamic Duo has since been added to the DCU slate, whereas introduced titles like The Authority and Courageous and the Daring are nonetheless in growth. Creature Commandos seemingly opens the door to revive The Steel Males challenge.
Creature Commando‘s third episode, “Cheers to the Tin Man,” flashes again to the origin of G.I. Robotic. Throughout the Sixties, it was revealed that Physician Will Magnus got here into possession of a G.I. Robotic. The sequence implies that Magnus will research G.I. Robotic, and he’ll function the premise for what’s going to change into the Steel Males, as seen in a blueprint schematic for the character Gold and the logos of the opposite Steel Males drawn on the blueprints. Magnus shouldn’t be proven after that, however his animated debut might open the door for the deliberate Musker and Clements animated Steel Males film to nonetheless happen inside the DCU.
With Will Magnus being energetic throughout the Sixties, an animated Steel Males film could possibly be a interval piece movie that additional fleshes out the lived-in DC Universe that James Gunn has established. The Steel Males being energetic earlier than the occasions of Creature Commandos can be hinted at by the truth that probably the most well-known enemies is locked up in Belle Reeve’s jail. In Episode 4, “Chasing Squirrels,” the villain Chemo is proven to be locked up alongside different monster-themed characters. Chemo not solely appeared in the identical first look as The Steel Males however was related to their origins within the New 52 DC reboot. Between Will Magnus and Chemo, James Gunn clearly has some plans for The Steel Males, and it’s seemingly Musker and Clements’s animated movie is the highest precedence.
Will Magnus is voiced by Alan Tudyk. Tudyk additionally voices Physician Phosphorus and Clayface in Creature Commandos. Tudyk has additionally change into a little bit of a Disney good luck appeal, having appeared in all of Walt Disney Animation’s function movies since Wreck-It-Ralph in 2012. Tudyk beforehand collaborated with Musker and Clements on Moana, the place he offered the sounds for the title character’s hen sidekick, Heihei. Regardless of Musker and Clements’ Steel Males film seemingly being designed as a standalone challenge, a Sixties setting might permit the movie free reign to do what the filmmakers need whereas additionally permitting it to be a part of the DCU.
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Whereas James Gunn has mentioned many actors who voice their characters in animation can even seem in live-action, Will Magnus was designed to resemble his comedian counterpart, with Tudyk doing an impersonation of The Graduate director Mike Nichols for the voice, that means if Will Magnus or The Steel Males had been to make the leap to the large display, the position would seemingly be recast. Steel Males as an idea now seemingly feels extra superb as an animated movie than a live-action one, but when the characters proved standard, they might simply lead their very own live-action film. In spite of everything, the pipeline between animated movie and live-action reimaging is shrinking a lot that Moana will get the live-action remedy 10 years after her authentic movie and two years after Moana 2.
Regardless of what director Andy Muschietti says, as a consequence of The Flash being a extra standard DC character, there was extra protection of the long-delayed superhero film. But Steel Males has been in growth hell for much longer; having been introduced earlier than the DCEU started, the group of heroes may lastly arrive lengthy after it ends in a brand new shared universe. Be it a live-action film, animated movie, or sequence, The Steel Males have waited lengthy sufficient. Creature Commandos is streaming on Max.