WB Developing Batman Beyond Animated Movie For Theaters

While Warner Bros. figures out how to best relaunch the Batman movie franchise in a fresh new way, DC fans have already had the perfect idea for years: just make a live-action adaptation of beloved animated series Batman Beyond. For those who don’t know, the show featured an older Bruce Wayne training up his replacement as the protector of a futuristic Gotham City. Imagine how awesome that’d be to see on the big screen?

The only way to make it even better would be to get Michael Keaton back as the older Bruce, as it’d tie into the fondly-remembered Tim Burton Batman movies from the late 80s/early 90s. That would surely be an instant hit, right? It definitely would be, but at least for the time being, it’s unlikely to happen. What will happen, however, is the next best thing.

That’s right, Warner Bros. is said to be developing an animated Batman Beyond movie which will hit theaters in 2022. And we even have some early concept art for the film, which you can check out in the gallery down below.

From what we understand, the studio’s angling the pic to be DC’s response to Sony’s wildly successful Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And though the cast and crew haven’t been announced yet, you can bet that they’ll be bringing in some big names if they truly hope to compete with the aforementioned animated effort from back in December, which was one of the year’s best films.

For those unfamiliar with Batman Beyond, as we said above, it was a TV series that ran from 1999 to 2001 and basically asked what if Batman was Spider-Man, but in the future? You see, in Beyond, age had finally gotten the best of the Dark Knight and he hung up the cape and cowl, resorting to a lonely existence in his mansion. That all changes, though, when high-schooler Terry McGinnis stumbles into the Batcave and steals a prototype Batsuit. Following that, he quickly becomes the Batman of the future and an elderly Bruce Wayne acts as his mentor.

For years, people have been calling for a live-action adaptation of Batman Beyond, and while it’s unlikely to happen now that WB’s giving us an animated version instead, just hearing that the property’s coming to the big screen is hugely exciting. Especially if it’ll be on the same level as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.