We don’t have long to wait until the premiere of the much-anticipated “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” and it’s fair to say we’re pretty excited. A new trailer, and glimpses of the plot and behind-the-scenes action for the Arrowverse event mean we have a fairly good idea of what to expect, although there’ll likely be more surprises to come.
One of the most significant parts of the “Crisis” involves long-time Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy appearing as the Kingdom Come Bruce Wayne. While we’ve recently seen some photos of Conroy in action, the actor has now discussed his experiences switching from animation to live-action.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Conroy admitted that it was a challenge to appear in person as an older version of the Dark Knight, commenting as so:
“In this, I explore a lot of [the] dark corners of Bruce Wayne. But they’re different than the ones I explored on Batman Beyond.”
Furthermore, Conroy discussed how he had to adapt to bringing physicality to the part, as well as his decades of experience voicing the character:
“It threw me at first. I never approached this character from that physicalized aspect. I always just inhabited him with my voice. When you do that in a recording studio, it’s a very intimate experience and you’re sort of living in your own imagination. You do it with your eyes clothes and you’re in this other world, and you have Mark Hamill feeding you all the energy you [need], and the other actors (because we always recorded together in the booths). To actually be on the set, in the physical world, and to be walking as the character and inhabiting the character in three dimensions, it was a real transition for me. It did take a while to get used to, I have to admit. I was surprised because I know the character so well.”
We know that Conroy will be showing up in the Batwoman episode of the “Crisis,” whereby Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane and Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl encounter a grizzled version of Bruce Wayne while on their mission to save the Multiverse. According to the EW story, casting Conroy was apparently a dream for producer Marc Guggenheim, with Legends of Tomorrow showrunner Keto Shimizu keen to use the actor’s age to play the Kingdom Come Batman.
Given the appearance of Brandon Routh as the Kingdom Come version of Superman, we’d expect there to be at least some reference to the events of the original comics series. The exoskeleton we can see in photos of Conroy tie into the use of this technology by Bruce Wayne after years of physical damage, with the character also employing his genius to protect Gotham with an army of robot Batmen. However, the Kingdom Come storyline does see Bruce and Clark Kent on opposing sides and this doesn’t seem to tie into what we’ve seen of Routh so far, so it could be that these events are overshadowed by the “Crisis.”
In any case, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off on Supergirl on December 8th, followed by Batwoman and The Flash, and wrapping up in January on Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow.
