For years, fans have been crying out for the return of Batman Beyond and just yesterday, we learned that those cries might finally be answered, courtesy of a new animated film that’s apparently in development at Warner Bros. Now that the cat (bat?) is out of the bag, the original voice of hero Terry McGinnis, Will Friedle, wants to put his name into the hat to reprise the role he did so well in back in the early 2000s. Responding to the news, he said: “Uh…for real? I hope I get to play! #BringBackBeyond #Schway.”
For those of you not in the know, Batman Beyond has one of the best comic book pitches you could imagine: What if you crossed Batman with Spider-Man….in the future? Set in a futuristic Gotham City where Bruce Wayne has long since retired due to age, the story follows teenager Terry McGinnis. After his father dies, he stumbles across the Batcave and steals a high tech prototype Batsuit. A grumpy elderly Bruce is initially furious, but soon recognizes something of himself in Terry, and the pair form a partnership in which Bruce uses his knowledge to instruct Terry on the best way to be Batman.
It’s a really cool premise, and the cartoon explored the long-term future of Bruce Wayne to winning effect. The highlight of the show has got to be the TV movie Return of the Joker, in which Bruce Wayne’s history with the Joker rears its head, revealing disturbing secrets about the Bat-family that were best left buried. If you can track down the uncensored PG-13 cut of the film, it’s got some sequences that stand amongst the best of anything the Diniverse ever put out.
Anyhow, it seems that Warner Bros. are positioning Batman Beyond as their answer to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And hey, given how great that turned out to be, I’m all for it. Let’s just hope the slightly crappy concept art doesn’t represent what we’re going to see in the finished film. Oh, and Warner Bros., if you bring Will Friedle back, you’d better also give Kevin Conroy a call.
