Dwayne Johnson's Krypto assembles a team in DC League of Super-Pets first look

You know Superman, but now it's time to meet the Man of Steel's best friend in an exclusive first look at DC League of Super-Pets.

In the upcoming animated movie, Dwayne Johnson voices Krypto, the Last Son of Krypton's loyal, swaggering dog. The pooch shares all of his owner's powers, but doesn't know how to play with other pets. That changes, though, when he's forced to lead a team of newly powered rescue animals to save Metropolis.

"I wanted it to be a real threat that you felt lived up to not just a goofy movie, but a real serious superhero threat—but also one that uniquely can only be solved by a group of pets," director and screenwriter Jared Stern tells EW. "I really wanted people to come away from this movie feeling like animation is a technique and not a genre. I wanted them to feel like, 'That was a really great superhero movie and it had everything I love in a superhero movie: It had great action, was really fun.'"

Super-animals aren't a new concept for the DC Comics universe. Featuring Krypto, Streaky the Super Cat, and several others, the Legion of Super-Pets was first introduced in the 1960s. Pictured above, the big-screen take on this team features Merton the turtle (Natasha Lyonne), PB the pig (Vanessa Bayer), Chip the squirrel (Diego Luna), and Ace, a pup voiced by Kevin Hart.

Stern, who previously co-wrote The Lego Batman Movie, came up with the idea for League of Super-Pets after volunteering with his wife at a rescue shelter where he encountered a group of unadopted pets who had been there for a long time.

"They seemed so powerless," he recalls. "I don't know why, but I thought, 'What if those pets had powers?'"

While Krypto learns a lot from leading the league, his relationship with Ace is at the heart of the movie. "It's a buddy story about those two guys," Stern says. "[Krypto] flies above the streets, Ace is from the streets. He's a shelter pet and so he knows a little bit more about being a regular dog. Their dynamic is figuring that out and butting heads in that way."

Seems like some necessary ruff-ness.

DC League of Super-Pets is slated to hit theaters May 20, 2022.

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