After decades of voicing Batman in DC animated projects, Kevin Conroy made his live-action debut as the superhero during the Arrowverse's Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. Gotham Knights co-showrunners James Stoteraux and Chad Fiveash recently shared that they hoped to build on Conroy's live-action Batman debut by bringing him in for their short-lived DC series.

In an interview with Multiverse of Color's The Showrunner Whisperer podcast, Stoteraux revealed that they were "given permission for one episode to be able to use Batman for Gotham Knights," with Fiveash adding, "Like a full-suited Batman." Stoteraux explained that they wanted Conroy to play Batman, but that the actor couldn't take on the role because he "was too sick at that point. He was always my favorite Batman, and we were dealing with an older Batman. You can still see in some of the DNA of things, like for the pilot, [we] used a photo double, and it’s not quite an accident that the photo double looks a lot like Kevin. That was very much intentional, and it was one of those things where we just weren’t able to, but we wanted to do it."

Gotham Knights Showrunners Detail Scrapped Batman Flashback

The scene that the co-showrunners had planned for Conroy never appeared in the series and was seemingly scrapped after the actor became unavailable. "We didn’t want to just do this with a random person. We felt like it was important [to have] somebody of Kevin’s stature and somebody that had this gravitas and obviously, he was the right age for that," Stoteraux explained. "That was initially the plan, and it was obviously very sad that he died, but we didn’t want to do it just by slotting somebody in there."

Stoteraux revealed that the flashback scene they had written for Conroy was an adaptation of a scene from the acclaimed comic book series, The Dark Knight Returns. "It was Robin’s audition sides; the interaction between her and Batman. Everyone loved the scene, and we felt it was important to Robin’s backstory to show this meeting," he explained. "It was one of those things where, initially, there was a bit of reluctance for that. But our executives really fought and said, 'Look, I think that this is the perfect setup and way to do this. You get this one scene you can do.'"

This is the first time that Conroy's name has been attached to Gotham Knights. Previously, Misha Collins — who played Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the series — had stated that his Supernatural co-star Jensen Ackles almost played Batman, but that scheduling conflicts prevented him from being involved in the show.

However, Stoteraux contradicts Collins' previous comments, stating that, although Ackles "would have been awesome" as Batman, it was Conroy or nothing. "If we weren’t able to pull that off, we didn’t want to do it [just] to do it," he explained. "That’s why that never ended up happening, but DC was really terrific about trying to help us make that happen."

What Was Gotham Knights About?

Gotham Knights follows Bruce Wayne's adopted son, Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan), as he forms an unlikely alliance with the children of Batman’s enemies when they are all framed for killing the Caped Crusader. The series, which aired on The CW but was unconnected to the network's popular Arrowverse franchise, was canceled in June 2023. The cancellation didn't entirely come as a shock to critics and fans as the show had been receiving poor reviews and low viewership since its premiere in March 2023.

Gotham Knights is currently streaming on Max.

Source: Multiverse of Color