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You may have heard that Annabelle the doll is showing up as a fighter in the current comic book event DC K.O., but did you know that this isn't the first time that Warner Bros.' haunted doll has crossed over into the realm of DC?

That's right - while Jason Momoa's Aquaman and the rest of the Justice League were fighting Steppenwolf, Annabelle was hanging out elsewhere in the DCEU - at the bottom of the ocean, specifically. Honestly, that's real. If I were her, I wouldn't get out of bed for anything less than Darkseid. But this wouldn't be her only appearance in the DCEU. 

At New York Comic Con 2025's Jim Lee & Friends panel, Lee said, "So, Annabelle was actually in [the movie] Aquaman — in the rubble in the sea, she’s lying in the debris, flotsam, jetsam, whatever that is. And then, she was also in the therapist’s office when Shazam talks to the counselor [in Shazam! Fury of the Gods], she’s sitting in the back corner, very creepily.”

It makes sense that Annabelle would be haunting the DCEU in silence. The Aquaman movies were directed - very well, mind you - by James Wan, the horror juggernaut who also made the first two Conjuring films. If there's anything to expect from a James Wan movie, it's a banger soundtrack (dropping It's No Good by Depeche Mode in the middle of Aquaman is kino), immense directorial enthusiasm, and a sly reference to another Wan project.

To be clear, Wan didn't direct Shazam! Fury of the Gods, but clearly, by the time that movie started filming, his impact on the DCEU had been understood. The first Aquaman film grossed over a billion dollars at the box office... and maybe filmmakers believed that it was all because of Annabelle's presence. Who can say?

Both Aquaman and Shazam: Fury of the Gods are streaming on HBO Max. Annabelle's appearance in the DC K.O. event will take place in a special issue released in February 2026.

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