According to The Hollywood Reporter, a new Batman series entitled Batman: Caped Crusader has changed streaming platforms. The Dark Knight was originally scheduled to launch under HBO Max similar to other DC comic cartoon shows such as Harley Quinn, Young Justice, and Aquaman: King of Atlantis; but was moved to Amazon Prime Video, ordering two full seasons in advance. HBO Max, owned by Warner Bros., sold the rights to Batman: Caped Crusader in an effort to consolidate assets and monetize content while the merger of their company with their new corporate owner Discover.
The animated series was initially announced in May 2021 with a goal to return Batman to his animated roots of the 90s animated series which Bruce Timm (Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, Justice League: Doom) created. The recently deceased Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series, Ben 10: Alien Force, Matlock) became the trademark voice of Batman in the animated series alongside Mark Hamill’s (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Child’s Play, Batman: The Killing Joke) Joker.
Timm and Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of The Planet of The Apes, The Batman), who have been heavily involved with prior aforementioned Batman movies and series, are still signed up to direct and create Batman: Caped Crusader as well as legendary filmmaker J.J. Abrams (Cloverfield, Star Trek, Star Wars: The Force Awakens).
“We are beyond excited to be working together to bring this character back, to tell engrossing new stories in Gotham City, the series will be thrilling, cinematic and evocative of Batman’s noir roots, while diving deeper into the psychology of these iconic characters. We cannot wait to share this new world.” said during the announcement of Batman: Caped Crusader by Abrams and Reeves.
Leading the new wave of super hero stories is James Gunn (The Suicide Squad, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dawn of the Dead) and Peter Safran (Aquaman, The Conjuring, The Starving Games), hired by Discovery CEO David Zaslav late last year as the consolidation of Warner Bros. Studios merged with Discovery. With intent to control the seemingly random DC project, Gunn and Zaslav have created a 10 year plan bringing in new characters as well as fan favorite characters with different actor portrayals.
Zaslav also announced that his film studio would be creating more content in the Lord of the Rings universe which is currently controlled by Amazon too. Amazon is upping its total number of fictional and superhero/magic series exponentially, all who have had positive reviews, hopefully Batman: Caped Crusader follows suit.