On the new DC animated series Creature Commandos, it’s a unique task force — incarcerated monsters — on wild missions and adventures. Emmy nominated executive producer and showrunner Dean Lorey (Arrested Development) joins me to talk about the comedy and action-packed CC (premiering Thursday Dec. 5 on Max). This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.

Jackson Murphy: Congratulations on the show. I have watched the first couple episodes and that energy and that fun vibe you want from a group of characters is there.

Dean Lorey: Yeah, it’s a real ride. And one thing that I love about it… I’m a fan of it as well. (laughs) But one of the things I love about it is that it’s a complete story and it wraps up at the end. There’s none of these, “Tune in next season and maybe you’ll get the answers”. We wrap it all up. It’s a lot of fun.

JM: Was that different for you in terms of your approach? You’ve done a lot of episodic television — “Arrested Development”… “Big Shot”. I was a big fan of John Stamos on that show. He was fantastic.

DL: Yeah.

JM: Was this a different approach for you as far as the storytelling process for a show like this and an animated show like this?

DL: What was great about it was we had all the scripts before we started production. James [Gunn] wrote all seven, and that was a giant change. I’m usually running a writer’s room or writing scripts myself. These were fully done and I’ve never experienced that before. It was great. It made it easy to produce and you knew where you were going. You knew what needed to be set up. It was terrific. And that was a big change. And I love animation. It is pretty much the same as I love live-action. I like doing both. And it’s great to be able to bounce back and forth.

JM: Did you always know right away that Viola Davis had to return as Amanda Waller?

DL: Yeah! I mean, who else could do it? She had to return. She was wonderful. It was kind of a thrill to direct her. I can’t say enough.

JM: Your entire voice cast is really strong. You’ve got Frank Grillo and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova, Zoe Chao, Sean Gunn, Alan Tudyk and David Harbour. And a lot of them were at New York Comic Con with you recently. How was that New York Comic Con experience being there, the crowd, and with this great cast?

DL: It was so great and it was the first time that the cast had really met each other because they’re all off alone in a booth recording. So it was a ton of fun. They were all so lovely, and I had only seen them on Zoom. It was the first time I met them in person. We had a great time and it was fun to see them together because the hope is, if there’s a live-action movie, that they will play those characters in a live-action movie. And so it was great to sort of see them together and all that.

JM: So is that part of the ultimate plan? The show kicks off the new DC Universe and what James Gunn’s got going. Is the plan to eventually take this to live-action?

DL: The hope is. Yeah. We cast the actors with that in mind. So it was a very different kind of casting process for animation because usually you don’t really care what somebody looks like. But they all fit their characters great. We’re really excited about this as the beginning of… potentially a franchise.

JM: And what DC fans who are so excited for this new chapter of the DC Universe, this new step forward… what do you think this show says about what the DC Universe will explore and what it really stands for?

DL: Well, what it is is an expression of James Gunn’s sensibility. It’s like “Guardians of the Galaxy”. There’s a lot of action. There’s comedy in it. There’s a ton of heart, probably more than people are expecting. And I think that those are sort of the overriding tones of James Gunn. So I assume that’s kind of what we’re going to be seeing as the universe unfurls.

JM: I liked seeing the cartoon James Gunn at the beginning of the opening credits. That’s terrific.

DL: We didn’t tell James we were doing that. We did it and then sent it to him and we were kind of like, “I don’t know if James is gonna like this.” But he did. He did like it. He was like, “I could have said no to it, but, it’s there.”

JM: It’s great! What were your goals with the balance of the action and the humor and lots of different characters involved in both of those things?

DL: Honestly, we took every moment and tried to deliver on the moment, whether it was an action set piece or whether it was a joke. We just tried to focus on making every moment clean and clear and fun and let the balance of it be dictated by the script.

JM: You explore the Frankenstein story in unique ways, especially the second episode. Have you always had a connection to classic movie monsters and the Frankenstein saga?

DL: Yeah. I have always loved Frankenstein. In fact… oh, I was actually… I forgot I’m in a hotel room right now. But I was going to point behind me, if I was at home. I have this beautiful Frankenstein painting. It’s such a classic story. And I think that we found a really unique take on it. And David Harbour’s performance as Frankenstein is great. And the conflict between him and the bride is a real driving force in the show.

JM: A lot of different DC animated universes that we’ve seen in theatrical form, at home form over the years. What did you find about this animation that you bring to this show, a uniqueness to the style, a uniqueness to the tone that you kind of play off of within what diehard DC animation fans are going to love about the experience?

DL: One, we wanted to distinguish it from “Harley Quinn”, [which is] told from the point of view of Harley. So the Gotham that you see is her vision of Gotham. It’s bright and colorful and all that. This to me… it’s Eastern European. It’s gothic, it’s very lush. And we really tried to embrace that so that it was visually beautiful, like every, every frame [is] a painting.

JM: Oh, it looks terrific. And do you honestly feel that, yes, there could be a live-action movie down the line, but do you have more beyond these seven episodes in you? Does James have more of that, and what you want to explore with these characters?

DL: Well, we definitely would love to do another animated season. At this point, James is the writer. So we’re waiting on his availability to be able to do that, but we definitely want to do it. I know he wants to do it. And you’ll see when you get to episode seven, it’s clearly set up.