The first look of Batman: Caped Crusader is here and it is nothing like Bruce Timm’s previous animated versions of the Dark Knight. In the new animated series, Timm did one thing that he aspired to do with the original Batman: The Animated Series. He is setting the upcoming show in the 1940s, the period when Bob Kane and Bill Finger first designed their DC superhero.
The ’40s setting will not be the only radical change in Bruce Timm’s new project as the first look also provides glimpses of Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Clayface. The series will be released on Amazon Prime Video after HBO Max dropped the project after its announcement.
Batman: Caped Crusader Will Be Set In The ’40s As Per Bruce Timm’s Original Vision
Bruce Timm and character designer James Tucker opened up about their new dark vigilante project, Batman: Caped Crusader, with Entertainment Weekly. The only condition Bruce Timm had was to create a project that wasn’t a repetition of his 1992 series, Batman: The Animated Series. Both Timm and Tucker found a way to do that exactly and decided to make their new project a period piece.
Caped Crusader will be set in the 1940s when there was not much technology available for the Dark Knight. Timm shared that Tucker and he were fans of the ’40s movies and decided to lean into that era for their project. It meant that the clothes, the cars, the architecture, and the level of technology were all designed to be from that time. Timm shared with EW:
“James and I are both really big fans of movies from that era, so we decided to really lean into that in terms of the clothes, the cars, the architecture, and the level of technology. Early on, we decided there would be no computers and no cell phones. That changed everything.”
The best way to set the animated series was to refer to the Batman comics of that era for inspiration. Timm revealed that many scenes in the new series will resemble those comics, but there are also elements that fans have never seen before. While Selena Kyle’s costumes are drawn from the purple suit of the ’40s, Harley Quinn takes on an Asian-American avatar in Caped Crusader.
The most striking changes among the characters go for the lead character Bruce Wayne. While the psyche of the character is an entirely different topic of discussion, Timm travels back in time with his Batman suit. It is clearly an inspiration from that era — short gloves, tall boots, and heightened ears.
Bruce Timm’s Caped Crusader Will Explore Bruce Wayne and Harley Quinn Like Never Before
Bruce Timm revealed to EW that Bruce Wayne’s characterization in the new series is entirely different from the other versions. In this series, Wayne is not obsessed with his parents’ murder. He has made the Batman identity his primary one and considers Bruce Wayne as a mask, trying to pretend to be someone he’s not. Timm explained Bruce Wayne’s psyche:
“He’s a really weird human being. He’s not obsessed with his parents’ murder, but it changed him in a way where he’s still not adjusted to being a human being. He’s literally Batman; inside, that’s who he is. Whenever he’s Bruce Wayne, that’s not just him with a mask off, that’s him wearing a person suit. He’s trying to pretend to be something that he’s not.”
As for Harley Quinn, whom Timm helped co-create, the character has an entirely different backstory and ethnicity. The original character designed by Timm became fun and crazy when she turned into Harley Quinn from Dr. Quinzel. However, the new characterization made her fun and whimsical as Dr. Quinzel and serious and scary as Harley Quinn. Most importantly, there’s no Joker in the picture. Instead, she’s a normal Gotham City psychiatrist with a ‘switch’.
Fans will get to see all these new versions of their favorite characters when the series drops on Prime Video on August 1, 2024.
