For a very long time, Batman has been the proverbial elephant in the room for the Arrowverse. His existence has been alluded to many times over the years in multiple CW shows, with him finally being outright named during their 2018 “Elseworlds” crossover and then in the upcoming Batwoman series. Even so, we’ve never actually seen him in the flesh. That looks likely to change in this year’s big crossover, though, “Crisis On Infinite Earths.”
The event will loosely adapt the classic comic book story of the same name and see versions of heroes from various alternate universes meet. So far, we have Tyler Hoechlin and Brandon Routh playing different Superman (with the latter portraying the Man of Steel from the Kingdom Come timeline), Batman ’66 alum Burt Ward showing up and Tom Welling and Lynda Carter said to also be joining the party, possibly. But there’s one recently announced name that’s got fans really excited: after 27 years of voicing Batman across animated series, movies and video games, Kevin Conroy will finally be playing the Dark Knight in live-action.
Now, our sources – the same ones who told us Black Mask will be gay in Birds of Prey, and that Black Adam will be the villain in Shazam! 3, both of which were later confirmed – have a few more details on what that’ll consist of. We’re hearing that while Conroy will be playing a Batman, he unfortunately won’t be donning a Batsuit.
This fits in with the speculation that the actor may be portraying the older Kingdom Come Bruce Wayne, who retired from fighting crime in person due to injury and keeps the peace in Gotham with an army of Batman robots. However, we’ll also apparently be finally seeing the arrival of a fully-suited Batman in the Arrowverse. Who will play this role remains a mystery, but after so many years of build-up, the pressure is definitely on to nail it right out of the gate.
With news of the crossover being revealed at a steady pace now, expect there to be some announcement soon as to which lucky actor has got the part. Whoever it is, while I doubt that we’ll ever see a solo Batman TV show set in the Arrowverse, simply having the character introduced and established should mean that he’ll be able to pop up in various series going forward and I, for one, can’t wait.
