DC League of Super-Pets Dir Jared Stern on Casting, Superman & More

When it comes to DC on the big screen, we’re often caught up in the seriousness of its core characters, whether it’s Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. Sometimes, you’ll have creative minds like James Gunn, Phil Lord, or Chris Miller, who can have a little fun in that sandbox, instilling some humor to break away from the traditional dark and gritty, as in the case of the animated DC League of Super-Pets. Jared Stern, who co-directed with Sam Levine and co-wrote the script with John Whittington, spoke to Bleeding Cool about the inspiration behind the film, casting, and how important it was to stay true to the source material. The film follows Krypto the Super-Dog (Dwayne Johnson) and Superman (John Krasinski), inseparable best friends who share the same superpowers and fight crime side by side in Metropolis. However, when the Man of Steel and the rest of the Justice League are kidnapped, Krypto must convince a ragtag group of animals to master their own newfound powers for a rescue mission.

Bleeding Cool: What was the inspiration behind ‘DC League of Super-Pets?’
Jared Stern: I was volunteering at a local pet shelter in L.A. I’m not that good of a person, and I need to be clear. I just went once, and my wife volunteers there all the time; I helped one day, and there were these adorable kittens in the front room. It’s a miracle if any pet gets adopted, but I felt they had a pretty good shot. There was this back room with some older pets, pets with disabilities, and it felt like they were maybe less likely to get adopted.

It felt like the shelter was taking care of them. That was their home, which was wonderful that they were being taken care of, but I felt bad to see them so powerless and no chance maybe that they would get a home. I don’t know why. Probably because I was reading too many comics and watching too many superhero movies my whole life, but I thought, what if they got superpowers? Simultaneously, I’d been working at Warner Bros with ‘The LEGO Batman Movie,’ so I knew about Krypto and Ace with the DC Super-Pets. I took those two things and smushed them together, and that’s the origin story of our origin story with ‘DC League of Super-Pets.’

BC: When you landed the cast, you certainly got a lot of powerhouses. Did you anyone penciled in mind, or were they there from the get-go?
Stern: It was a mixture of both. When I pitched the movie many years ago, I did say for Krypto, think Dwayne Johnson. Five or six years later, he’s actually Krypto is pretty cool, lucky, and I’m very thankful for that. So there were ones like that. There were others like Merton the Turtle, who comes from Merton McSnurtle, the Terrific Whatzit in the comics. He’s a guy in the comics, and I in my mind as I was writing it, I was like, “Maybe it’s like Larry David or Alan Arkin,” but then I was watching ‘Russian Doll,’ and my wife was like, “[Natasha Lyonne] has such a great voice.” I was like, “I know it’s the greatest voice ever,” but she’s like, “You have to have a part for her.” I was like, “I don’t really.” I started thinking, “Wait a minute, I do.” Some refined and evolved, and now I can’t imagine anyone playing that part except for Natasha. She’s the funniest thing in the movie.

BC: Given the source material, how important was it to try to distinguish Krypto from Superman?
Stern: That’s a good question. It’s tricky because, in many ways, they’re the same. [Krypto’s] the Superman of dogs. They both have the same origin story, they have the same powers, and yet, Krypto is a dog. We were trying to make him specifically a dog and going through the issues a dog would go through. In our movie, he’s dealing with the fact that he’s always had one best friend his entire life, not just any best friend, but the coolest best friend you could possibly have. He’s Superman’s best friend, and they’ve been with each other since they were a baby and a puppy. Now he’s worried he might lose him because Superman has met Lois Lane.

Our personality for Krypto is that he’s this guy that’s a little bit cocky. He doesn’t know how to be a regular dog because he can fly above them and has superpowers. He’s going through that thing with his owner, and he’s also got a little vulnerability underneath the cockiness. There’s a little bit of sweetness and concern. So Dwayne was perfect to play that, and that’s how we came up with our Krypto. It’s a cocky guy worried about losing his best friend and saving him; he needs to learn to be a little more of a real dog. I think that was the distinction specific to our Krypto versus Superman.

DC League of Super-Pets, which also stars Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer, Diego Luna, Marc Maron, and Keanu Reeves, is in theaters.