Justice League Unlimited

Overview

According to animator Bruce Timm, the series finale of Justice League, "Starcrossed", was originally planned to be the final episode of the series; however, Cartoon Network ordered the production of a successor, entitled Justice League Unlimited. Taking place shortly after its predecessor ended, it features a greatly expanded League, in which the characters from the original series—now referred to as "founding members"—are joined by many other superheroes from the DC Universe; in the first episode, well over 50 characters appear. A number of these were heroes who had made guest appearances in Justice League, but many heroes and other characters made their first animated appearances in this series. The general format of each episode is to have a small team assemble to deal with a particular situation, with a focus on both action and character interaction. This extension of the Justice League was originally planned to be explained in a planned direct-to-video feature film, but the project never materialized.

Stan Berkowitz, a member of the production team, left the show later for the TV series Friends and Heroes, and writer Matt Wayne was contracted to replace him. Most episodes tell a self-contained story, but the series also features extended story arcs, the first involving the building conflict between the League and a secret government agency known as Project Cadmus. This plot line builds upon events that occurred during the second season of Justice League (which in turn built upon events in Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, and The Zeta Project), and has affected the plotlines of most of its episodes. It was resolved in a four-part story at the end of the second season of Justice League Unlimited. The third and final season story arc focuses on the new Secret Society (which is based on the Legion of Doom of the Challenge of the Super Friends season of Super Friends) as the main villains, a loose-knit organization formed to combat the increased superhero coordination of the first season. However, the Secret Society was never referred as the Legion of Doom, although it was originally planned to use the original name used by the Flash as his comical way to refer the Society, but the idea was rejected.

The series, along the entire DC animated universe, was originally planned to end after the second-season finale "Epilogue", but a third season was greenlighted by Cartoon Network. The third season started in 2005 with the episode "I Am Legion" (which was written before the announcement of a third season) and ended in 2006 with the episode "Destroyer". According with Matt Wayne, if the show had been renewed for a fourth season, he would have liked to write more episodes focusing on Superman and Wonder Woman.

Towards the end of the series, certain characters became off-limits to the show, like Blue Beetle and Hugo Strange. Characters associated with Batman and those who appeared in Batman: The Animated Series (aside from Batman himself) were restricted due to the unrelated animated series The Batman and the Christopher Nolan's live-action theatrical The Dark Knight Trilogy to avoid continuity confusion. Aquaman and related characters were unavailable due to the development of a pilot for a live-action series featuring the character as a young man (planned to be an spin-off of Smallville), which wasn't picked up at the end. Characters from DC's "mature readers" Vertigo imprint were also not allowed, like Swamp Thing and Phantom Stranger. No characters from the Teen Titans animated series appeared in JLU until after that show had been canceled (when Speedy appeared in an episode referencing the Seven Soldiers of Victory). The Joker, Batman's archenemy, was restricted to appear in the series, unlike its predecessor, like Riddler and Scarecrow, which were supposed to be members of the Secret Society as a nod to the original Legion of Doom.

To compensate for this, the producers focused some stories on previously overlooked DC Comics characters. These included characters like Deadman, Warlord, and an unnamed modern equivalent of The Seven Soldiers of Victory.

DC Comics created an ongoing monthly comic book series based on the TV series, as part of its Johnny DC line of "all ages" comics.

Justice League Unlimited, like the second season of Justice League, is animated in widescreen. The show also features new theme music and Intro. The two-part series finale was aired in the UK on February 8 and 18, 2006, and in the United States on May 6 and 13, 2006.

Some romantic relationships develop as in Justice League. Some of these relationships are Question and The Huntress, Black Canary and Green Arrow, and the love-triangle between Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Vixen. Additionally, the series continuously hints at a mutual attraction between Batman and Wonder Woman. However, Batman is reluctant to develop a full romantic relationship due to his duty as a superhero, Diana's immortality, and his belief that a relationship within a team will bring issues and disaster. He nonetheless has admitted that he and Wonder Woman may have something special.

Cast

Non-speaking characters

Aside from the voice-cast, numerous DC comics super heroes are shown as Justice League members (and it is implied that there are even more members not shown). Heroes seen, but not heard, are listed below.

Soundtrack

La-La Land Records released a 4-disc Justice League soundtrack on 29 July 2016. If sales of this release improve significantly, they will produce a Justice League Unlimited soundtrack.