Batman Beyond creator thinks series is “ready-made” for live-action

Between The Batman movie, the TV spinoff, Batwoman, and even the Harley Quinn series, there’s a lot of Bat-content out there. But there’s always room for more.

Batman is always on the brain over at Warner Bros. The studio has a new Batman movie on the way, starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader. There’s also an HBO Max TV show coming about Gotham City’s corrupt police department, as well as more of Ben Affleck’s Batman in the Snyder Cut of Justice League, out this March.

And on top of that, the animated show Batman Beyond recently appeared on HBO Max, letting subscribers take in another version of Batman: in the distant-ish future, Bruce Wayne has long since retired the cape and cowl, but helps a younger man — Terry McGinnis — take his place as Batman. The show was created by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, and it’s experiencing something of a revival at the moment.

“It’s obviously super gratifying that people are still such fans of that show, especially because it was almost 25 years ago now that we did that show,” Timm recently told SYFY WIRE. “It’s crazy. We’re almost halfway to the future. We’re almost halfway to the time period it’s supposed to take place in. It’s super gratifying.”

With all that new interest, might Warner Bros. even considering bringing the show back in some form, maybe as a live-action series or movie? As I’m sure Timm has noticed, superhero movies and TV shows are all the rage right now.

"Could it work in live action? Sure. Of course, it could. I think it’s ready-made for it. I do think it would be a little on the higher end production-value-wise, because it would not be a cheap movie to make because it’s set in the future. But I there’s definitely some cinematic possibilities there, for sure."

It’s possible Warner Bros. is already ahead of him. There have been lots of reports that Michael Keaton, who played Batman in Tim Burton’s movies from the late ’80s and early ’90s, is returning to play him again in The Flash, and maybe in other projects. An older Batman? It’s starting to sound a little familiar.

“Honestly, I think the idea of Michael Keaton doing it is cool,” Timm said. “Honestly, he looks a little too good I know he’s probably in his mid-60s now, but he looks pretty damn good for being over 60. I like my old Bruce Wayne to be like really old. But, who knows? It could certainly still work. He looks like he could kick most guys’ asses.

Keaton is 69, for the record. Whether that qualifies as “really old” for Timm is a matter for another day.

In other Bat-news, the second season of Batwoman premieres in just a few days. The first season featured Ruby Rose in the role of Batwoman Kate Kane. But after Rose left the show between seasons, showrunner Caroline Dries brought in Javicia Leslie to plan Ryan Wilder, a new character who will become the new Batwoman.

Actors on CW shows are known to swap out every now and then, so why didn’t Dries feel the need to create a whole new character rather than just recast the part of Kate Kane? The showrunner sounded off to Entertainment Weekly:

"It didn’t feel like the right move for me because honestly, it just felt weird and awkward, and unearned. I’m not opposed to recasting the character of Kate Kane at all. But doing a swap out without any story motivation behind it felt really weird to me. To me, it was asking too much of the audience. And in a way — I don’t know if the audience would agree with this — it was almost negating Season 1 and saying, ‘Okay, you just need to start watching Season 2 to really get the show because…’ But not even that. If we were to have all seasons of the series, it would almost feel like Season 1 was the anomaly, which I don’t want it to feel like. I want it to feel all like one piece of a continuing story … [B]ut in the heat of the moment, just to do a swap and act like nothing happened within our story is a lot for me to digest as the creative lead of the show."

Batwoman season 2 premieres on January 17, this Sunday, on The CW.

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