The Caped Crusader will be watching over Gotham City at Prime Video. Back in 2021, it was announced that the all-new animated series Batman: Caped Crusader was in the works at HBO Max. A promising series, it was described as a spiritual successor to the tremendously popular Batman: The Animated Series. One of the developers of that original show, Bruce Timm, would also create Caped Crusader with The Batman director Matt Reeves.
In the midst of production, leadership changes at Warner Bros. Discovery had been causing many projects in the works to be outright canceled. That famously includes the finished Batgirl movie, which will no longer see the light of day. Many animated shows that had been ordered at HBO Max were also pulled, Batman: Caped Crusader being among them. However, production did not cease on the show, as it was reported at the time that the plan was to shop the series to other potential homes.
That was the cue for Amazon’s Prime Video to step in. Per THR, pretty much all of the big names in the streaming world were interested, with Netflix, Apple, and Hulu exploring a possible pickup. But Prime Video came out ahead by landing the rights, securing a two-season order for Batman: Caped Crusader. These deals are still reportedly being finalized and no one involved has publicly commented on these reports.
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Batman: Caped Crusader Pays Homage to Batman: The Animated Series
The new series will be reminiscent of Batman: The Animated Series, but it won’t be a continuation, instead serving as more of an homage. This new show will pick up a bit earlier in the timeline, set before Batman has firmly established his partnership with Commissioner Gordon. That relationship will be explored as the series progresses, as executive producer James Tucker teased back in 2021.
“We’ve reconfigured some of the roles some of the characters have. We’re starting before Batman has earned their trust and they’ve earned Batman’s trust,” Tucker said. “We don’t know that Commissioner Gordon will be Batman’s ally. The journey of the show is to see how they eventually grow together and learn to trust or not. Nothing is assumed in this series as far as what we’re used to seeing in the world of Batman. As he develops as a character, we’ll start introducing those gadgets, and the audience can see how he developed the Batmobile using different prototypes. Part of the fun of this series is that we’re finding him discovering these things that [in] most other Batman series they already were there.”
Sadly, one key change will have to come with the lead voice actor. Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman in the original animated series along with a slew of other DC projects, passed away in November. Fans would have undoubtedly loved for him to have voiced Batman once again for the animated show. It’s not clear if he recorded any dialogue for the series prior to his passing, but the new two-season order at Prime Video would mean that a recasting would have to occur at some point regardless.
No release window has yet been set for Batman: Caped Crusader at Prime Video.
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