---
title: "Warner Bros. Animation Goes Darker: Get Jiro, a Gerry Anderson Revival and Animated Dark Shadows"
description: "At the Annecy animation festival, Warner Bros. Animation laid out an unusually eclectic adult-animation slate — from a long-gestating adaptation of Anthony Bourdain's comic 'Get Jiro!' to a newly announced animated revival of the 1960s gothic soap 'Dark Shadows.'"
category: "Entertainment"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/entertainment
author: "Arman Petrosyan"
published: 2026-06-27T08:38:32.000Z
updated: 2026-06-27T08:38:32.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/warner-bros-animation-goes-darker-get-jiro-a-gerry-anderson-revival-and-animated
tags: ["Warner Bros. Animation", "Annecy", "Get Jiro", "Dark Shadows", "adult animation", "Hollywood"]
---
# Warner Bros. Animation Goes Darker: Get Jiro, a Gerry Anderson Revival and Animated Dark Shadows

At the Annecy animation festival, Warner Bros. Animation laid out an unusually eclectic adult-animation slate — from a long-gestating adaptation of Anthony Bourdain's comic 'Get Jiro!' to a newly announced animated revival of the 1960s gothic soap 'Dark Shadows.'

Warner Bros. Animation used its showcase at the Annecy International Animation Festival this week to make a case that it has no single house style — pairing a chef's revenge fantasy, a decades-old British puppet master's unmade script, and a gothic vampire saga in one adult-animation lineup.

## 'Get Jiro!' nears the screen

The headline reveal was a full episode of *Get Jiro!*, the half-hour series adapted from the graphic novel created by the late chef and writer Anthony Bourdain with Joel Rose, [Variety reported](https://variety.com/2026/tv/global/batman-joker-adult-animation-warner-bros-animation-annecy-1236790867/). Set in a collapsed-civilization Los Angeles where star chefs rule and a knife cuts more than food, the project has been years in development. Warner Bros. Animation has said it is bound for Adult Swim, with a premiere targeted for this fall.

## A Gerry Anderson script, revived

The studio also offered a first substantial look at *Hit Squad*, a project built from a late-1970s script by Gerry Anderson, the British producer behind *Thunderbirds* and *Space: 1999*. In a nod to Anderson's marionette legacy, the production is said to blend computer animation with practical puppet effects, a collaboration involving Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe. No platform or release window was announced.

## 'Dark Shadows' returns, animated

The showcase's formal announcement was a new adult animated series based on *Dark Shadows*, the ABC gothic soap that ran from 1966 to 1971 and built a cult following around the vampire Barnabas Collins, [The Hollywood Reporter reported](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/warner-bros-animation-dark-shadows-series-1236630726/). The original spawned feature films, later revivals and Tim Burton's 2012 movie. The animated version is in early development, timed as a 60th-anniversary project, with writer Lisa Holdsworth attached as showrunner. No network or release timeline has been set.

## A broader push

The adult slate landed in the same Annecy week that Warner Bros. Animation pressed forward on the DC side, with series greenlights reported for *Absolute Batman* and *Joker: Laugh Riot* — billed as DC's first anime series — and a world premiere at the festival for the animated feature *Batman: Knightfall*. "We don't have a house style," Peter Girardi, the studio's executive overseeing the adult programming, told the Annecy audience, per Variety. "Instead, we let the show dictate that."

For Hollywood, the presentation underscored how aggressively the major studios are courting Annecy — the industry's most important animation gathering outside the U.S. market season — and how much of the growth in animation is now aimed at adult audiences across streaming, cable and theaters. Several of the projects, including the LA-set *Get Jiro!*, keep the work close to home for a town whose animation business remains a significant local employer.

## Sources

- [Inside Warner Bros. Animation's Annecy adult animation showcase](https://variety.com/2026/tv/global/batman-joker-adult-animation-warner-bros-animation-annecy-1236790867/)
- [Warner Bros. reanimating '60s cult TV show 'Dark Shadows'](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/warner-bros-animation-dark-shadows-series-1236630726/)