The new animated movie Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part One brings the two heroic teams together to battle a mutual threat and leaves the ensemble changed from the experience. Helming this ambitious crossover story is veteran Rooster Teeth writer, director, and producer Kerry Shawcross, who directs the animated film. The new movie provides fans of both properties with a fun-filled team-up and an opportunity to reimagine how the Justice League would look in the fantasy realm of Remnant, where RWBY takes place.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Kerry Shawcross shared the origins of this cinematic superhero mash-up, explained how the movie fits within RWBY's larger canon, and reflected on the chance to bring the two teams together for Justice League x RWBY.
CBR: Kerry, what are the origins behind this mash-up between worlds?
Kerry Shawcross: A few years ago, we had already been working with Warner Bros. and DC to make a comic crossover. I don't know about the exact meeting, but I do know that, at one point, Geoff Yetter, who's the head of our licensing, was speaking to someone at Warner Bros. and went, "What if we did an animated version of adapting it or doing a new story?" Everyone seemed to be immediately on board. I've described it as being "too easy" because we talked about it a few times, and everyone said, "Okay, yeah. Let's do it!" And it just took off from there.
You get the opportunity to bring iconic DC heroes into the world of RWBY and redefine their individual powers. How was it reimagining the Justice League for this movie?
It was very daunting at first, but once we got into it, it was a lot of fun. We've been making RWBY for 10 years now, so working with Meghan [Fitzmartin] and Eddy Rivas and our story teams -- not to make it sound like too much of a process, but we know how to create RWBY characters at this point. Once we know what the parameters are and what we're able to do with them in terms of their powers, everyone plugged that in. We figured out how we wanted to represent them in our system in a way that makes it fun, interesting, and a slightly different take on it, with Batman being the biggest one there, without being too overpowered, which is definitely an issue with Superman.
In terms of their designs, it really was just Warner Bros. and DC saying, "Do your thing with them!" Our team did and came up with a lot of really great concepts. Warner Bros. and DC were really great at giving us input that kept their characters as their characters, which is exactly what we want, but not necessarily being too strict about how we could style them. Because of that, we turned out some really cool designs.
You've recently launched RWBY Vol 9. How was it figuring out where this movie takes place within the series' timeline?
It had been fairly straightforward. I can't say exactly where it is. Otherwise, it might give some spoilers away, but we had a few places that we talked to Meghan about where we thought it could fit pretty well. We're referring to this movie as "canon-adjacent," which we do for a few of our properties. Everything about it is pretty canon. The characters are going to act as they should. It just means we're probably not going to reference their run-in with Wonder Woman later in the series.
It's meant to be our characters at certain instances. That's why we call it "canon-adjacent." After you watch it, I think you'll know where this fits in, and some things make more sense, like why is Yang in her classic outfit with her robotic arm? With that, I think a lot of people thought we were being lazy or made a mistake, but as you watch it, you'll find out that was very intentional and a part of where it's at.
You've got plenty of guest characters coming to Remnant and their respective actors. How was it working with actors like Chandler Riggs to make sure they fit within this world and story?
Working with everybody was so great. I was a little nervous at first because it was my first time directing people like this, and it was definitely a different way to bring people into the RWBY Universe than we normally have. But everybody did a great job, came prepared, and got their character right from the beginning. We all had a lot of fun recording this, and we try to do that with RWBY as much as possible. Everybody came with their A-game, and I think that shows.
I love that all the characters start relatively split up before coming together. Nine volumes of RWBY deep, how was it introducing each main character and figuring out those initial pairings?
It's always a bit of a challenge, especially when we're nine volumes deep. I think Meghan did a great job, and it feels like every character has their entrance beat. We come in on Ruby and Yang and immediately start off with some cool action with them. With Weiss, we can see how she doesn't fit in with the haughty-taughty lifestyle. With Blake, she has a gun pointed at her, and she ends up pointing one back. A lot of it was getting these quick, broad character ideas across, and over the course of the movie, we get to hone in more.
If you're a RWBY fan or a DC fan going in, they did a great job of getting the character introductions to be a brief summary of who they are. Once we get past that, we can get to the good stuff. We don't need to know every single thing about these characters to understand where they're coming from to get to the more intricate things.
With this story being split into multiple films, how was it determining where to end Part One while still providing a satisfying standalone story?
It was honestly pretty straightforward. I think it'll become more [clear] when people start to learn about the second part. While there is a Part One and Part Two, they are pretty divided and separate stories. There was a first wave, and once we knew there was going to be a Part Two, we wanted to make it feel complete. Once you get to Part Two, you'll understand how all their actions and relationships from Part One are going to affect Part Two. For Part One, we just wanted to make a fun story.
What do you think each of the pairings between DC and RWBY has brought to the RWBY characters? How has working with DC characters changed how you see this world?
The Jaune/Jessica and Ruby/Superman stuff is probably what will resonate the most because there are a lot of layers for both of them there. For me, getting to work on these was a great way to mentally take a step back and remember that when you're nine years into a show, you still have to explain some basics sometimes, remembering that not everybody has seen every episode. For me, it made me take a look at things as a different viewer.
Directed by Kerry Shawcross, Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part One is on sale on April 25 on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital HD.