Next big Superman spinoff brings Darkseid to the new DCU

Darkseid is the ultimate threat in DC Comics. The god of fascism, created by Jewish World War II veteran Jack Kirby, seeks to control the entire world by bending minds to his will and unlocking the secrets to the Anti-Life Equation. He was meant to be the big bad of the DC Extended Universe, though he only appears in Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League. James Gunn was understandably hesitant to hew too closely to his predecessor’s failed plans, instead kicking off his DC Universe with Lex Luthor and Brainiac. But Darkseid’s DC Universe debut is on the way in a new show previewed at Annecy Festival.

Mister Miracle will be a faithful adaptation of Tom King’s 2017 DC Comics miniseries, with King serving as executive producer and showrunner. It follows Scott Free, the son of Darkseid’s enemy Highfather. Darkseid and Highfather exchanged sons to prevent war between their two planets, and Scott was raised on the hellish world of Apokolips before escaping alongside Big Barda, one of Darkseid’s fiercest warriors.

“It's my love letter to Jack Kirby,” King said during a panel at Annecy. “The characters he created for DC Comics are his most personal work, his most cosmic work, his most existential, the one where he tried to look God in the face and draw him on a page.”

It’s also a very dark series, opening with Scott attempting suicide. In the aftermath, Scott has to grapple with his sanity, his relationship with Barda, and a new phase in the war between Apokalips and New Genesis. The series juxtaposes the relatively mundane lives of Scott and Barda in Coast City, which is modeled off Los Angeles, and the cosmic war they are connected to. It will also delve into Scott’s relationship with Darkseid, Highfather, and Orion, the son of Darkseid that Highfather raised in Scott’s place.

“It's not a story about trauma, it's a story about what happens after trauma,” King said. “It's a story about living again. It’s a love story between a husband and a wife, finding each other again, raising each other up again, and then using that power to fight in the cosmic war that Jack Kirby started.”

King said he was initially reluctant to make an adaptation of Mister Miracle, but was persuaded by James Gunn and his DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran to turn the comic into an animated prestige drama akin to Mad Men or The Sopranos.

“This is something very special to me, and not just special to me, but special to a particular audience of people who have gone through what Scott had gone through,” King said. “For 10 years, I have been talking to fans about how much this book means to them, and there's a lot of sort of responsibility in that book.”

Mister Miracle is currently in production with Warner Bros. Animation and Titmouse Paris, the animation studio behind Scavenger’s Reign and the standout Love, Death & Robots episode “How Zeke Got Religion.” Darkseid has already been cast, but King couldn’t reveal any of the actors working on the show.