The DC Animated Universe has a rich filmography when it comes to the Justice League, necessitating a solid watch order to make sense of it all. DC's animated films are a consistent content output, and standing among them are some of DC's most faithful media. With a new animated Justice League film from DC having been put out at least once almost every year since 2010, it's easy to get lost in putting together the chronological order in which the films were released.
Warner Brother's live-action DCEU may be on the brink of a reboot, yet the universe's animated films have always had a strong identity. Between them lies some of the best Justice League representations available in movies. That being said, the overarching story of the best and worst DC animated films is split between several continuities, further complicating watching patterns. Rather than going by release date, it may help to also group the films by shared continuity, allowing for the enjoyment of an overarching story across multiple films.
Standalone Justice League Movies in Chronological Order
Not every Justice League animated film fits neatly into a shared universe. While the one-off stories may not have the allure of the long-form character growth, the standalone films offer variety, able to explore more unique stories featuring the Justice League that might not otherwise make it to screen. These films put their own unique spin on the Justice League's position, featuring alternate time periods, universes, and art styles that might not make the cut in a full-on franchise.
It's not strictly necessary to watch these in chronological order, considering they aren't a shared story, but doing so brings an appreciation for DC's animated projects to grow and evolve. That said, it's worth noting that Injustice is one of DC's most brutal alternate universe comic storylines, seeing Superman turn into a tyrant after the Joker orchestrates the death of Lois Lane. The Man of Steel's new bloodthirsty methods alienate many of his fellow heroes, leading to some intense and lethal in-fighting among DC's hero roster.
The animated adaptation pulls no punches when it comes to reimagining this story, and indeed, seeing it take place in motion can make some of the scenes seem even worse. This means that it could also be worth watching these releases in a different order, if only to avoid ending on a story that sees the Justice League turn on one another in such violent fashion.
- Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
- JLA Adventures: Trapped In Time (2014)
- Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)
- Injustice (2021)
Justice League Animated Movies' Crisis on Two Earths/Doom Continuity
The first of the animated Justice League films to work within the framework of a shared universe, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Justice League: Doom complement one another as a complete story with a consistent tone, art direction, and characterization. Both explore the idea of holding up a dark mirror to the Justice League, making them especially interesting releases in terms of looking at the team, their values, and the power levels of the respective members of the group.
In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the League encounters their evil doppelgangers in the form of the Crime Syndicate, a criminal organization made up of the Justice League's counterparts in a parallel dimension in which their loyalties to the League's ideals are reversed. This allows the story to explore some fascinating villains who reveal what the Justice League could have looked like if they were not so heroically inclined, and gives the DC hero group a team that's clearly a powerful threat for them to go against, since the Crime Syndicates powers are naturally on par with the Justice League's.
The second installment, Justice League: Doom, warps Batman's ideology against the league, with Vandal Savage leading an army of hand-picked villains to enact the Caped Crusader's own contingency plans to stop members of the Justice League, should they go rogue, against them. In this universe, Batman's creation of the contingency plans were likely inspired by his first-hand account of what a League with the wrong intentions was capable of in the previous film. The smart, consistent themes of the Crisis on Two Earths/Doom continuity make it a short but sweet entry among DC's various cinematic universes.
- Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010)
- Justice League: Doom (2012)
The DCAMU Justice League Movies in Chronological Order
The most expansive and recognizable DC's animated Justice League continuity is the DC Animated Movie Universe, or DCAMU, with seven films inspired by The New 52 comic run. The series starts with Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, the same climactic storyline that began The New 52, and ran for 7 years with consistent releases throughout this time period, which steadily built up the animated world and its main characters.
Keeping consistent with this inspiration, the tone of the DCAMU is a good deal darker than most of what DC had put into animation up to its inception, especially in some of the later films. While this is quite different to the tone often found in animated superhero releases, it's one that serves to make the DCAMU all the more engrossing, and far closer to much of the comic material that it takes its stories from. This also serves to help keep tensions and anticipation for the releases high, as the heroes never seem totally safe from a tragic demise or certain doom.
In addition to the Justice League, this universe also contains a healthy collection of stand-alone films featuring individual members, such as Son of Batman, The Death of Superman, and Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, not to mention other team-ups within the DC Universe with films such as Teen Titans: The Judas Contract and Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay. While the films in the DCAMU vary widely in quality, they are a great way to experience the classic storylines of The New 52 continuity and do right by the Justice League in terms of representation.
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
- Justice League: War (2014)
- Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)
- Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)
- Justice League Dark (2017)
- Justice League vs. The Fatal Five (2019)
- Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)
Justice League Animated Movies' Tomorrowverse Continuity
Following the finale of the DCAMU, the Tomorrowverse franchise sought to fill in as a successor for DC's need for an animation continuity with a consistent timeline. Named after the first film in the series, the well-received Superman: Man of Tomorrow, the Tomorrowverse is still relatively new but has left many avenues open for big things to come. As the first true representation of the franchise, Justice League: Warworld took an unorthodox route with its anthology storytelling, only gradually revealing to audiences what this version of the League was truly dealing with as time went on.
This continuity concluded with the Crisis n Infinite Earths storyline, which was covered in a trilogy of Justice League films that saw the entire DC multiverse threatened by the Anti-Monitor. The adaptation of the classic comic storyline provided a dramatic finale to the Tomorrowverse that actually tied it to the DC Animated Movie Universe, revealing that the events of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War - and specifically, sending the Flash off to create a new timeline by killing Darkseid - directly led to both the Tomorrowverse and its incomplete nature, as Darkseid needs to exist to balance the multiverse.
As a result, this means that the entire Tomorrowverse is technically a part of a complete viewing of the DC Animated Movie Universe story, since the final trilogy directly ties into its predecessor in a way that makes all prior Tomorrowverse events also important for the prior series. While this certainly extends the overall watch list by a significant degree, it also ties the animated Justice League movies together in a way that adds to the franchise as a whole, and ensures a more linked narrative, making watching all the animated Justice League movies an even more cohesive experience.
The initial announcement of the plotline was significant enough to even get some DC Animated Universe fans wondering if Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths would be related to the DCEU, though it is its own separate affair. Having since been confirmed as part of the Tomorrowverse, the movies set an interesting precedent as a stepping stone into a more codified continuity, as following this, the DC Universe is supposedly set to combine animated and live-action worlds together into one, with actors playing the same roles in both.
- Justice League: Warworld (2023)
- Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One (2024)
- Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two (2024)
- Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three (2024)
