Justice League Animated Movies in Order: The Chronological Order
DC Comics’ Justice League is one of the most important superhero groups in history, which is why it’s only natural that it has been featured in multiple adaptations. Although we have recently seen a live-action iteration of the group, the Justice League has, for the most part, been featured in animated adaptations, whether in the form of a television series or an animated movie.
This article is going to be a chronological list of all the animated movies featuring the Justice League, but with a twist. Namely, the only series of Justice League movies that actually has a chronology is the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU). The DC Animated Universe (DCAU) had only one Justice League movie, while the remaining Justice League movies were standalone and out of continuity.
This is why we’ll be dealing with the DCAMU chronology, while the remaining movies will just be listed, but you have to know that they do not fit into any chronology, either between themselves or as part of a series.
How Many Animated Justice League Movies Are There?
As we have said in the introduction, there are numerous Justice League animated movies, but most of them are either standalone, or are not part of any larger narrative continuity. That is why it is impossible to determine a proper chronological order for each and every one of these movies, but we can list them so that you see their total number.
The list is going to contain all the Justice League animated movies ordered by release date, with the bolded ones being those that form part of the DCAMU narrative continuity. (Note: The movies on the list are going to be only those focusing on the Justice League, not the ones where the Justice League only makes an appearance). They are:
- Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
- Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010)
- Justice League: Doom (2012)
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
- JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time (2014)
- Justice League: War (2014)
- Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)
- Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League (2015)
- Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Attack of the Legion of Doom (2015)
- Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)
- Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)
- Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Cosmic Clash (2016)
- Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Gotham City Breakout (2016)
- Justice League Dark (2017)
- Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (2019)
- Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)
- Justice Society: World War II (2021)
- Injustice (2021)
As you can see, there is a total of 18 Justice League animated movies across all formats. The series started in 2008 and is ongoing, but only six of these 18 movies are part of a single narrative unit, so we won’t be analyzing any other movies except them.
Justice League Animated Movies in Order
As we have said, the list is going to focus solely on the DCAMU movies, since they are the only ones with a fixed chronology and that can be listed in a chronological order; as for the others, you can simply watch them however you want and whenever you want, since they are not directly connected and don’t tell a larger story. Before we actually start with the list, let us just briefly go over the complete chronology of the DCAMU:
| Year(s) | Feature films |
|---|---|
| Origin of the Flashpoint/New 52 Timeline | Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox |
| 2011 | Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (prologue) |
| 2013 | Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (prologue), Justice League: War, Son of Batman, Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, Nightwing and Robin |
| 2014 | Batman vs. Robin, Batman: Bad Blood |
| 2015 | Justice League vs. Teen Titans, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, Justice League Dark |
| 2016 | Teen Titans: The Judas Contract |
| 2018 | The Death of Superman, Reign of the Supermen, Constantine: City of Demons, Batman: Hush, Wonder Woman: Bloodlines, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (prologue) |
| 2020 | Justice League Dark: Apokolips War |
Now that you know the complete chronology, let us go over the six movies in more detail.
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
Director: Jay Oliva
Writer(s): Jim Krieg
Release Date: July 30, 2013
Running Time: 81 minutes
While visiting his mother’s grave, Barry Allen, the alter ego of the superhero The Flash, receives news that someone is attacking the museum dedicated to him in his hometown, Central City. Arriving on the spot he discovers that the handful of criminals is led by his nemesis, Professor Zoom, who intends to destroy a large part of the city thanks to bombs and thus tarnish the name of the scarlet speedster.
However, thanks to the intervention of the Justice League, everything is for the best. Barry then wakes up at work and discovers that many things are different from what he remembered: his mother is still alive, he has lost her powers and the world is on the brink of the war that afflicts him.
Meanwhile, Batman, much more aggressive than usual and equipped with firearms, attacks Yo-Yo to find out where the Joker has taken Judge Dent; the death of the criminal is only thwarted by the arrival of Cyborg, who in vain asks the Dark Knight to join the front to fight against the regime imposed by Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Barry then heads to the Batcave and, discovering it, Batman begins to storm him with blows: Barry tries to placate him, coming to understand that he has not Bruce Wayne in front of him but his father Thomas.
The two, after discovering that Zoom’s uniform is in Barry’s ring, sense that Zoom, thanks to his powers, has returned to the past and changed the time continuum to destroy Flash forever. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and her Amazons discover that Lois Lane has infiltrated their new realm to provide information to Cyborg and decide to capture her.
Lex Luthor and Deathstroke, meanwhile, locate Aquaman’s weapon of mass destruction but are captured and killed by the king of Atlantis while Barry attempts, with disastrous results, to recreate the accident that turned him into the Flash.
After a period of convalescence, Barry is able to see some memories in his mind that explains the new course that the story has taken (the murder of Aquaman’s wife at the hands of Wonder Woman after a night of love between the two members of the JLA, the ensuing war and the death of Bruce, who transformed his mother into the Joker) and decides to try the experiment again, which this time succeeds.
Meanwhile, it turns out that Aquaman’s weapon is none other than Captain Atom, captured some time ago. Lois is saved from the Amazons by the resistance and a being capable of moving at superhuman speed while Hal Jordan, a US air force pilot, is chosen to guide an alien’s spaceship, armed with an atomic bomb, against the invaders.
Meanwhile, Barry realizes that he is not fast enough to overcome the time barrier: he then senses that Zoom is interfering with the force of speed and, together with Batman and Cyborg, goes in search of Superman. They manage to find him and, although he is far from the usual appearance of the man of steel, thanks to him they manage to defeat the government troops that attack them.
RELATED: Batman Animated Movies in Order: The Ultimate Watching Order
Hal Jordan’s suicide attack fails but the Flash manages to convince Cyborg and Batman to head to London to stop the final act of the war between the forces of Aquaman and Wonder Woman, further discovering that Zoom helped Lois and the resistance to push them into English capital.
The three manage to divide the two leaders but Batman is seriously injured in the clash: Zoom, at this point, reveals himself and reveals to Barry that by breaking the time barrier and saving his mother, he caused the upheavals that are devastating the planet.
Aquaman is eventually killed by Wonder Woman, however not before activating her weapon; Batman, at this point, kills Zoom with a pistol shot, so that Barry, as the only user of the force of speed, can break the time barrier and rearrange everything. Before leaving, Thomas tells Barry to deliver a letter to Bruce and then die exhausted.
Barry manages to stop himself from the other dimension before he saves his mother and everything returns to normal. Flash then hands Bruce the letter from his father, in front of which the Dark Knight cannot resist tears.
Justice League: War
Director: Jay Oliva
Writer(s): Heath Corson
Release Date: January 21, 2014
Running Time: 79 minutes
In Gotham City and elsewhere, some kidnappings occur and the press blames them on the vigilante Batman; Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, foils one thanks to the Dark Knight, together with whom he launches in pursuit of the creature who was about to kidnap a woman: the being, a Parademon, places what looks like a bomb in the sewers and then self-destruct in the name of the evil Darkseid.
Batman, however, senses that the object actually looks more like a computer than a bomb. At the S.T.A.R. of Metropolis, meanwhile, Dr. Silus Stone and his staff are analyzing a device identical to the one found by the two superheroes provided to them by Flash; further seeing that the same signals emanating from the object also come from other cities, the scientist understands that the devices constitute a sort of communication channel.
Meanwhile Victor, son of Dr. Stone, wins an important game with his football team but instead of his father, who is absent for work, sits a little boy, Billy Batson, who enters the stadium and then in the locker room taking him the Jersey.
While a demonstration against superheroes is held in front of the White House appeased by Wonder Woman, who soon meets the President accompanied by Steve Trevor, Batman and Green Lantern arrive in Metropolis and track down Superman: seeing them with one of the devices, the Kryptonian swaps them for allies of the creatures who attacked him too, but after a brief battle they manage to clear up and decide to work together to discover the true purpose of the boxes.
Meanwhile, on the planet Apokolips, Darkseid, on the advice of his subordinate Desaad, decides to start the invasion of Earth. Victor reaches his father by expressing his anger at his absence and shortly after the devices are activated, opening dimensional portals from which the Parademons emerge: the young player is hit in full by the detonation and reports very serious damage; his father, to save him, decides to subject him to a procedure never tested before and Victor merges with this technology becoming a cyborg.
Father and son are then joined by The Flash while Wonder Woman, in Washington, also begins to fight with the Parademons. Billy returns home and when one of the Parademons attacks him he transforms into Captain Marvel while Superman, hearing that the invasion has reached the capital, heads to Washington and begins to fight the invasion together with Wonder Woman.
Cyborg, thanks to his new faculties, decrypts the message contained in the boxes (discovering that the kidnappings have the function of transforming the victims into Parademons in the service of Darkseid) before being joined by Shazam; The Flash, meanwhile, joins Lantern and Batman.
All the superheroes involved in the fight get together and Cyborg tells them what he has discovered, namely that Darkseid wants to modify the Earth to make it his domain; at that moment, however, Darkseid himself takes the field and, thanks to his Omega rays, manages to stun Superman and have him kidnapped by the Parademons.
Batman, certain that without the Kryptonian, defeat is inevitable, after revealing his story to Green Lantern he lets himself be captured to go and free him, also advising him to try to collaborate with others.
Green Lantern and the others decide that to stop Darkseid it is necessary to deprive him of his Omega rays and therefore that they must blind him, while Desaad tries to transform Superman into the most powerful servant of the ruler of Apokolips; Batman then manages to stop him while Wonder Woman blinds Darkseid’s right eye.
Superman awakens but, not having fully come to his senses yet, he kills Desaad and also attacks Batman. The battle between Darkseid and the other superheroes rages more and more and these, thanks to a portentous collective attack, manage to completely blind the opponent, who nevertheless continues to fight them.
Batman tries in vain to bring Superman to his senses while Cyborg, entering the system of devices, manages to open the dimensional portals, which suck all the Parademons and even Darkseid, but he is pushed hard by all the superheroes, including the arrived Superman and Batman. Cyborg then manages to return all the kidnapped people to Earth, who cheer their saviors.
The seven, finally gathered on the occasion of their public celebration, despite claiming the opposite, realize that they have created a group that will protect the Earth.
Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
Director: Ethan Spaulding
Writer(s): Heath Corson
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Running Time: 72 minutes
Deep in the Mariana Trench, the U.S.S. California is attacked by some beings and destroyed; the target of the assault were some missiles supplied by the vehicle, which are stolen. Meanwhile, at the S.T.A.R. of Metropolis, Cyborg is able to talk to Steve Trevor, revealing to him that the Justice League is far from united and that he himself has not yet overcome the trauma of not being a normal man anymore.
As Superman and Wonder Woman kiss and watch Athens from its acropolis, a young man named Arthur Curry tries to drown the pain of losing his father in alcohol by talking to a lobster in a Maine bar. By saving the crustacean from becoming one of the customers’ dinner parties, Arthur proves that he possesses superhuman physical characteristics, which get some people’s attention.
Cyborg, informed of the attack on the submarine, goes to the place to examine it and some of the beings who have sunk it attack it forcing it to flee; a meeting of the JLA is then called, which interrupts the appointment of Superman and Wonder Woman in civilian clothes, which Batman does not show up: Green Lantern joins him and has Scarecrow captured, the criminal Batman was chasing and who he wanted to interrogate.
Having taken the wreck to the S.T.A.R. laboratories, the group has the opportunity to review the video of the attack on Cyborg and Wonder Woman recognizes the weapon that wounded it: it is a dagger of Atlantis, the mythical civilization of the seas. Cyborg then carries out research on scholars interested in this myth and finds its most important exponent, Dr. Shin.
Meanwhile, in Atlantis, the evil prince Orm and his mother, Queen Atlanna, have an argument: the young man wants to avenge his father, who died accidentally due to the effects of the previous battle of the Justice League, but his mother imposes peace. Immediately after the decision, Atlanna orders the faithful Mera (the one who was watching Arthur) to call him back to the city: he is in fact the son she had with a terrestrial man and the time has come for her to succeed her to the throne.
Meanwhile, Doctor Shin is approached by Manta, loyal to Prince Orm, who directs him right towards Arthur, while he himself, disguising his vehicle as a US submarine and using the missiles stolen from California, attacks Atlantis, claiming numerous victims. Shin, as soon as he arrives at Arthur’s house, is killed by Manta’s men, who then attack him too; Mera’s intervention, however, avoids the worst.
Batman and Superman arrive at Shin’s house and, thanks to Cyborg’s help, discover the truth about Arthur as Orm attempts to exploit the attack he orchestrated himself to push Atlanna to declare war on the surface; the queen, however, takes a more diplomatic approach and decides to go talk to the JLA. Mera takes Arthur to Atlantis and reveals the mystery about his origins; the two are then attacked by Orm’s other henchmen, but the Justice League tracks them down and helps them.
After a harsh confrontation in which they reveal that they know both secrets of the other, Orm kills Atlanna, takes the trident symbol of power and proclaims himself the new king of Atlantis, then blames the earth for the death of the queen and declares war. The Justice League (without Batman, Flash and Cyborg) confronts the new king with Mera and Arthur but is defeated and thrown into an abyss; Arthur, using the powers derived from his royal blood, however, manages to free the new companions and save them along with Superman.
Orm, meanwhile, creates a huge tsunami, with which he attacks Metropolis, invading the city and confronting General Lane’s men. The Justice League takes part in the battle and, although Arthur manages to defeat Manta, Mera is captured by Orm and the group of heroes are also routed.
Batman then comes to the rescue of his colleagues and, thanks to Cyborg, shows the troops of Atlantis the confession that Orm had presumptuously made to Mera regarding the murder of Atlanna; the army then swears allegiance to Arthur, who defeats his stepbrother.
The Justice League, more cohesive out of this battle, is then invited to the coronation of Arthur, who accepts the proposal to join the group and then command, together with his beloved Mera, an attack on what remains of Orm’s men. Finally, Cyborg reveals that he has completed the Control Tower projects and rejoins Sarah, a colleague of his father.
Justice League vs. Teen Titans
Director: Sam Liu
Writer(s): Bryan Q. Miller, Alan Burnett
Release Date: March 26, 2016
Running Time: 79 minutes
The Justice League finds itself fighting the Legion of Doom (made up of Lex Luthor, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, the Time Mage and the Toymaker) near its new headquarters; after the victory of the superhero group the Wizard manages to escape but, in doing so, he is possessed by a strange shadow that makes him able to hurt Superman.
Batman then coordinates the evacuation of the city but his son Damian, disobeying him, attacks the Magician with the Batwing and causes the shadow to flee, without being able to discover anything else about it. Bruce then, to teach him the value of teamwork, he has Dick Grayson take him to the headquarters of the Young Titans, a group of boys with powers.
Meanwhile, the shadow possesses Superman, who begins to have unusual behaviors that upset Wonder Woman.
Damian meets his new mates Rachel Roth / Raven, Garfield Logan / Beast Boy and Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle, along with their teacher and partner Koriand’r / Starfire, but, refusing to consider them as such, he behaves in an arrogant manner and this leads to a clash between him and Beetle: the latter, involuntarily, injures him very seriously and Raven intervenes to save him.
In using her powers to save his life, their minds come into contact and Damian sees in that of the girl a figure that terrifies her; Raven, however, refuses to talk about it and Starfire has no information about her, only her parents are known to be dead.
Superman, still possessed, attacks and brutally defeats the Atomic Skull: Wonder Woman and Batman approach him and, after the latter uses kryptonite, the shadow manifests itself and then escapes again through the man of steel.
Meanwhile, Starfire takes the boys to an amusement park to amuse them a bit and to help them get to know each other better, but shortly after Raven is attacked by some shadow emissaries, whom she manages to defeat with the help of her companions, who subsequently they ask her for an explanation. Raven reveals that her shadow is none other than her father, the powerful and evil demon Trigon, who haunts her to be freed from the crystal in which she imprisoned him after the destruction of Azarath.
At this point comes the Justice League, who has located them thanks to Victor Stone / Cyborg and asks that Raven join them; The Flash, Diana and Victor, however, are possessed by the shadows and nimbly defeat the Titans, which forces Raven to turn into a demon (her true nature) from her to surrender to the JLA.
Cyborg and Batman manage, during the fight, to free themselves from the shadows (which cannot host injured bodies), the first thanks to Beetle, the second by exploiting a neurotoxin studied for Bane which, however, puts him out of action.
Damian, determined to save Raven, coordinates the others: after finding her thanks to the locator he has put on her, he manages to make Superman come to his senses, who in turn frees Flash and Diana but not before Trigon regains her body.
The Titans, rescued Raven, go with her to hell to retrieve the crystal in which to imprison the demon again, but when everything seems complete Ra’s al Ghul, Damian’s grandfather, manifests himself and shatters the object and then asks his nephew to take the side of Trigon like him.
Damian refuses, now aware of the value of working collectively and friendship, and defeats him (Ra’s turns out to be actually just one of Trigon’s mutant demons) while Raven manages to seal her father again, then inserting the crystal on the forehead of Trigon. she. At first the girl doesn’t want to follow the Titans to Earth, for fear of freeing her father again, but Damian convinces her to follow them, determined to bring her back to them.
Justice League Dark
Director: Jay Oliva
Writer(s): Ernie Altbacker
Release Date: January 24, 2017
Running Time: 75 minutes
Across the world, thousands of people apparently commit crimes of all kinds for no reason, justifying their actions by saying that they have committed them to drive out the demons they see.
The Justice League then begins to investigate and while Superman and Wonder Woman immediately opt for the supernatural trail, Batman shows doubtful, until that same evening he is possessed by a spirit that covers the walls of his house with the name “Constantine”.
A famous occultist, five days earlier he was in Las Vegas with his friend Jason Blood playing poker in a clandestine gambling den against three demons, who, once beaten, throw themselves against John, who however manages to drive them back to ‘ Hell also thanks to Jason’s demonic counterpart, Etrigan, and to get his hands on the Stone of Dreams, a powerful artifact of black magic that he decides to keep in his home, the House of Mysteries, together with his trusty Black Orchid.
Meanwhile, Batman asks Zatanna for help in finding John and she leads him and Boston Brand aka Deadman (the spirit that had possessed Bruce) to the House. On the way, the three are cornered by a tornado thrown at them by a powerful wizard, but they still manage to escape.
Confident that the Justice League does not have the means to cope with this situation, they go to Ritchie Simpson, a terminally ill acquaintance of John, who gives them an amulet, the key of Keshanti, with which they hope to understand the origin of the collective madness; John and Zatanna, formerly lovers, then go with the others to Metropolis Central Hospital and, peering through the magic object at the memories of a man, they discover that the origin of everything is a shadow wearing a particular ring.
While John and Zatanna are in the man’s mind, the hospital is attacked by other supernatural entities, which Batman and Deadman manage to cope with. The group then returns to the home of Ritchie, now dying, and once he sees the ring, he directs them to Felix Faust, a powerful dark wizard; they are also joined by Jason, who arrived shortly before at Ritchie’s house to find a way to find the House of Mysteries.
To locate Faust, the five ask for help from Swamp Thing, the monster of the swamps, who leads them to Faust’s observatory, where a battle then erupts between him and the group.
The five manage to win but discover that Faust is in no way connected to world events and therefore understand that Ritchie, who after recovering thanks to a fragment of the Stone of Dreams destroys the House, is the real engine of everything: the magician, in fact, he did all this to be healed by the sinister entity called Destiny, a powerful magical being who in the past forced the wizard Merlin to bind Jason and Etrigan to save the first’s life, in exchange for freedom.
Once back to reality Destiny begins to sow destruction: the Justice League falls victim to demonic hallucinations and Destiny himself manages to defeat Etrigan, separating him from Jason, and Swamp Thing, separating him from his human counterpart Alec Holland; John and Deadman, however, manage to trick him and fatally injure him as Batman destroys the Dreamstone, the source of his powers.
Constantine lets the infernal spirits take Ritchie’s soul while Jason, now devoid of his immortal counterpart, dies and is buried where his village once stood. Etrigan returns to Hell while John and Zatanna, now reconnected, go together to the new House of Mysteries, where Deadman also begins a new life together with Black Orchid.
Justice League: Apokolips War
Directors: Matt Peters, Christina Sotta
Writer(s): Ernie Altbacker, Mairghread Scott
Release Date: May 5, 2020
Running Time: 90 minutes
The Justice League – recently joined by Lex Luthor, John Constantine and his mate Zatanna – learning that Darkseid is about to invade Earth, prepare a preemptive attack directly against Apokolips and his master, while the Teen Titans remain on Earth for the protect. However Darkseid, through Cyborg, has access to the attack plans.
Upon arriving on Apokolips, the League members find out that Darkseid was waiting for them and several of them are killed by “Paradooms”, genetic hybrids of Parademons and Doomsday, while Constantine, in front of the actual butchery that takes place and after the brutally savage death of Zatanna, runs away.
Two years later, the Earth is, via Lex Luthor, under the yoke of Darkseid, who intends to empty it of its magma to feed his world and to continue his global conquest of the universe by attacking the Green Lantern Corps. Meanwhile, Superman, Lois Lane and Raven attempt to unite the last remaining forces to attempt a suicide mission to free the universe from the threat of Darkseid.
For this purpose, they will appeal to the League of Assassins, the Suicide Squad and John Constantine, who sees his last chance for redemption.
RELATED: Suicide Squad vs Justice League: Who Would Win?
Do You Need to Watch the Justice League Animated Movies in Order?
As far as the DCAMU movies are concerned, it is advisable to watch them in the proper chronological order. The movies are connected and are part of a larger narrative structure. As for the non-DCAMU movies, they are not part of a single narrative unit, so you can just watch them however and whenever you want.
Will There Be More Animated Justice League Movies?
Although DC Comics has not officially confirmed any new Justice League movie, there sure will be lots more. DC’s animated movies are a brand and since they keep on making new animated movies, the Justice League is bound to appear, either in a standalone movie or as part of the ongoing Tomorrowverse, which officially succeeded the DCAMU.
