By now, you don’t need me to tell you for the umpteenth time how Batman Beyond‘s popularity has endured long past its three-season run on television. In addition to fans the world over continuing to watch the beloved animated series on home video, DC has continued the legacy in the comic book medium. Heck, they’re even introducing a Batwoman Beyond this fall!
As it turns out, two bombshells were dropped during the retrospective panel conducted last week at San Diego Comic-Con. One, of course, was that Batman Beyond: The Complete Animated Series will arrive on Blu-ray this October. The other, however, is some pretty earth-shattering trivia.
Believe it or not, a second Batman Beyond direct-to-video film had been planned back in the day, but it never got off the ground because Return of the Joker didn’t meet sales expectations. According to Bruce Timm, this would’ve been the basic plot:
“Catwoman was going to be our leading villain in the second movie… She was the one who cloned Bruce Wayne to create Terry, but that was going to be our big surprise in our next movie.”
Suffice it to say, the idea was eventually re-purposed for the Justice League Unlimited episode titled “Epilogue,” only it was Amanda Waller being the culprit. As you may know, the major difference with her was that “the Wall” did it with the intention of making sure the world still had a Batman, to oversimplify the situation.
For those unfamiliar, JLU revealed that Waller swapped out Warren McGinnis’ DNA with that of Bruce Wayne’s, effectively making Terry the son of the Dark Knight in a sense. Actually, the Phantasm had been hired to slay the McGinnis parents, but she backed out. Still, Warren eventually found himself the victim of violence in Terry’s teenage years.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’d be cool to learn more about the Batman Beyond movie that never was. It’s crazy to think that Return of the Joker fell short of WB’s expectations because of how awesome it was, but that’s Hollywood for you, baby.
