The Annecy International Animation Film Festival unveiled a rich slate of new animated projects, from Batman series to a Conan adaptation.
The 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival once again proved to be the launchpad for some of the most anticipated projects in Western animation, with Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios using their platform to unveil an ambitious slate. The headline event was a joint presentation titled World's Finest Animation, led by Peter Safran, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO of DC Studios, and Sam Register, President of Warner Bros. Animation. Alongside them, Warner Bros. Animation artists shared first looks and creative insights into what the studios are framing as the next era of DC animation. The festival ran in Annecy, France, and the two studios hung a massive banner in the city spotlighting ten animated properties in development.
The most rapturously received announcement of the festival came from animation pioneer Genndy Tartakovsky, who revealed he is finally bringing Conan the Barbarian to the screen. Partnering with Cartoon Network Studios and Prime Video, Tartakovsky is directing an animated series based on the legendary Robert E. Howard character, a project he has been actively pitching since 2008. In a video message he told the crowd that the world was not ready before, but that after adult Samurai Jack and Primal, the time was now prime for the story to reach the screen. While no finished footage was shown, the studio unveiled a first teaser poster rendered in Tartakovsky's sharp-edged, high-action visual signature.
The Conan series also marks a notable shift for the filmmaker, representing his first work on a pre-existing, third-party property since his groundbreaking 2003 Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series. Tartakovsky has built his reputation on a distinctive, often dialogue-light visual storytelling style across Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, and the more recent adult fantasy series Primal. Adapting Robert E. Howard's pulp-era barbarian, a character first published in the 1930s and long associated with sword-and-sorcery cinema, places that signature aesthetic against one of fantasy fiction's foundational figures. The announcement was met with widespread excitement from the assembled animation community.
Adventure Time fans also had reason to celebrate, as the studios confirmed that the beloved Land of Ooo is expanding again. Showrunner Adam Muto and the creative team behind the acclaimed Fionna and Cake series are returning for a new spin-off titled Bubblegum and Marceline. The series focuses on the deeply layered, fan-favorite relationship between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen, a pairing that became one of the franchise's most discussed elements. The confirmation underscores that the lore-heavy world of Adventure Time still holds plenty of stories years after the original flagship series concluded.
On the DC side, the studios announced an animated adaptation of the best-selling comic-book series Absolute Batman, written by Scott Snyder with art by Nick Dragotta. Snyder will serve as executive producer and showrunner, with Dragotta attached as producer. The source material has been a commercial phenomenon, selling more than six million copies, with Absolute Batman #1 reaching an eleventh printing, and the Absolute line ranking among the top ten best-selling comics of 2025. The animated version reimagines the Dark Knight as a working-class hero stripped of the manor, the money, and the advantages that traditionally define Bruce Wayne.
The DC slate stretched well beyond a single Batman project, reflecting how central animation has become to the broader DC strategy under James Gunn and Peter Safran. The Annecy banner highlighted a deep roster including Mister Miracle, a New Gods story confirmed as a third animated show in the DCU canon, plus My Adventures with Green Lantern starring Auli'i Cravalho as Jessica Cruz, the renewed Creature Commandos, and the ongoing My Adventures with Superman, which began its third season in mid-June. A new kids' series starring Krypto the Superdog was also announced.
Warner Bros. Animation rounded out its presence with adult-leaning fare aimed at Adult Swim and streaming audiences. The festival included a first look at SuperMutant Magic Academy, an adaptation of Jillian Tamaki's celebrated 2015 comic that blends teenage slice-of-life comedy with high-fantasy surrealism, and Get Jiro!, adapting the late Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose's dystopian graphic novel about celebrity chefs as violent warlords in a near-future Los Angeles. Also featured was Bat-Fam, the family-friendly Prime Video spin-off that continues the story from 2023's Merry Little Batman. Taken together, the announcements positioned Annecy 2026 as a decisive showcase of how legacy properties and bold new adaptations are reshaping the studios' animation pipeline.
Reported by Animation Magazine.
