JLU

Big changes for the Justice League cartoon are coming with the new season. Gone are the two-part episodes and the core team. Instead, we have Justice League Unlimited.

The Justice League animated series is going to get bigger very quickly. Before the opening theme of the season opener of Justice League Unlimited, viewers will be treated to more than 60 heroes. “We’ve got a heckuva lot more characters, pretty much a full roster of DC heroes,” director Joaquim Dos Santos told The Continuum last weekend at Wizard World Los Angeles. “It’s pretty much going to be bigger and badder. It’s going to be huge.
“The opening teaser a huge shot of the interior of the Watchtower and it’s literally just packed with every character you can imagine. I know it’s going to be a pause-fest going on, where people are picking out heroes.”
Dos Santos, who shares directing duties with Dan Riba, said he’s already worked on five episodes for the upcoming seaosn. While he can’t reveal too many details, he did tell The Continuum how the new season will work.
“They’ve done away with the two-part format. It’s just 30-minute episodes,” he said. “The way it works out there’s a core group, and they’ll take a team of two or three other heroes on an adventure with them. There’s basically a team leader and then the new guys on the team, the rookies.
“Other than that, there’s no real format. It can kind of go anyway in wants.”

Hrm. While my Inner Geeky Fanboy capers and frolics at the possibilties, I’ll also miss th more intense characterization that could be done with the current seven characters over the course of an hour. My concern is that we’ll end up with more zap-bang-swoosh, and fewer moments that do more than scratch the surface.

Which has its own charm, of course, but I’ve been enjoying the present format. Ah, well.