Batman: Caped Crusader Reveals First Look At Gotham's Golden Age
It's been a long time coming but we've finally got our first real look at "Batman: Caped Crusader." The upcoming animated series from "Batman: The Animated Series" co-creator Bruce Timm and producers J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves has encountered a few setbacks on its journey to release, but is now set to debut on August 1, 2024, on Amazon's Prime Video.
Details about "Batman: Caped Crusader" were first revealed at DC FanDome back in 2021, where we were promised a show that would tell a whole new story rather than continuing where "BTAS" left off. Timm also characterized the show as "more 'Batman: [The] Animated Series' than 'Batman: [The] Animated Series,'" revealing that "Caped Crusader" would return to the "original principles" of the '90s show but would have no limitations in terms of "adult content," "violence," and "adult themes." During its 1992 to 1995, "BTAS" had to carefully navigate the Fox censors, who famously provided a list of nine things the show couldn't do. Now, as Timm put it during his FanDome comments, "My idea is basically to say, 'Okay, it's 1990 again, but I get to do what I want to do this time.'"
However, following that promising introduction, the show encountered some issues — the main one being that "Batman: Caped Crusader" was canceled at HBO Max during the height of Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav's merciless axing of Warner shows and movies. Thankfully, though, the series found a new home at Amazon, with the company ordering two seasons of "Batman: Caped Crusader" for its Prime Video service. Now, Entertainment Weekly has spoken with Timm and character designer James Tucker, who have revealed a lot more about what to expect from "Caped Crusader" — and it looks like we'll be journeying back in time for this latest Batman adventure.
Batman: Caped Crusader is set firmly in the '40s
One of the best things about both "Batman: The Animated Series" and Tim Burton's two Batman movies (1989's "Batman" and 1992's "Batman Returns") was the way in which they seemed to belong to a universe that incorporated aspects of multiple decades, creating one foreboding, gothic, and timeless continuity. That said, while Bruce Timm had a lot of creative control over "Batman: The Animated Series" he wasn't quite all-powerful, as the co-creator has previously revealed that if he'd had his way, the show would have actually been set in the 1930s.
Now, though, it seems Timm is finally getting his way. As revealed in the EW piece, "Batman: Caped Crusader" wlll be a "”40s-set period piece," firmly planting this version of the Dark Knight in the decade that immediately followed his real-world debut in 1939's "Detective Comics" #27. As Timm told 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 Animated Series" was well-known for amalgamating elements of various time periods so that the "Dark Deco" world of the show was populated by both Bat computers and 1940s-style sedans. This time, however, we're going full-'40s.
Catwoman is getting a makeover in Batman: Caped Crusader
You'll often hear about how numerous creators have gone "back to the roots" of Batman before. Whether it was with 1980s comics such as "The Dark Knight Returns" or Tim Burton's films, which went a long way to restoring the image of the Caped Crusader as a true "weird figure of the dark," to quote his origin story in 1939's "Detective Comics" #33. Even Matt Reeves tried to restore the detective element of the character with 2022's "The Batman."
But with "Batman: The Caped Crusader" set in the '40s, it seems Bruce Timm and his creative team are really returning to Batman's roots, and not just in terms of the Dark Knight himself. According to the EW article, Batman comics from the 1940s were a huge influence on the show, which is significant as the storylines from this decade introduced iconic characters to the Batman mythos, including one Selina Kyle/Catwoman (who debuted in "Batman" #1 back in 1940). As Timm told the outlet:
"We didn't want to do the 'BTAS' Catwoman or the version that Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke did in the early 2000s with the practical leather jumpsuit, which has become her default look in the comics and movies. That's great, I love that, but we wanted to do something different. So we thought, well, let's go all the way back to the beginning. I love the original look that she had in the '40s. It's purple!"
Throughout the '40s comics, Catwoman did indeed don a purple outfit, complete with a green cape and belt. A similar purple suit can be seen in newly released images from "Caped Crusader," in which Timm claims Catwoman is based partly on Barbara Stanwyck's performance as the title character in "The Lady Eve."
Clayface is returning to his roots
It's not just Catwoman that will be getting a 1940s makeover for "Caped Crusader." Among the other villains in the series, it looks as though we'll be getting a version of Clayface that is nothing like the shape-shifting beast from "BTAS." In fact, this iteration of the character will be much closer to Basil Karlo, the first character to use the Clayface moniker when he appeared in 1940's "Detective Comics" #40.
In his original form, Karlo was a make-up artist and ex-actor who had a psychological breakdown upon learning one of his horror movies was set to be remade without him in the starring role. Working as a make-up artist on the set of the film, he wore a suit, hat, and mask inspired by his Clayface character and began murdering the cast and crew before being thwarted by Batman and Robin. He also appeared on the cover of "Detective Comics" #40 being apprehended by the Dynamic Duo. "Caped Crusader" looks to have restored much of this original characterization, with an image of the villain revealing him to be wearing a hat and what looks to be a mask and bandana while wielding a knife.
Interestingly enough, previous reports have claimed that Matt Reeves was planning movies based on Batman villains including Clayface, with some speculating that the director was intending to return the character to his roots. There was also said to be a scrapped Mike Flanagan Clayface movie, in which it seemed likely we would have seen the Basil Karlo incarnation of the character based on Flanagan's description of the film as a "horror/thriller/tragedy." Now, it seems Timm and co. have beaten them both to the punch.
Harley Quinn is a lot darker in Batman: Caped Crusader
Perhaps the most interesting reinvention of a character in "Caped Crusader" is Harley Quinn. First created by writer Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for "Batman: The Animated Series," Harley has since become a fixture in the Batman universe. The creators of Harley Quinn never expected her to become so popular, but now that she is, she's being reinvented once again for "Caped Crusader." This time, though, there was obviously no 1940s counterpart to go off, so Timm and the team revamped the character as an Asian American psychiatrist who's a much more sinister villain than ever before. More than that, Harley Quinn will no longer be defined by her relationship with Joker, and will, according to Timm, use "psychiatry as a weapon."
"I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her," Timm said. "But I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker's girlfriend." In order to reinvent the character in this way, the team flipped Harley Quinn's characterization. As the co-creator explained:
"The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she's Dr. Quinzel, she's a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she's Harley Quinn, she's scary."
As revealed in one of the new promo images, rather than her typical red, white, and black attire, this version of Harley will don a black, white, and yellow suit. But not only will Harley be a much more threatening iteration of the character, it seems she'll also count Bruce Wayne as one of her patients.
Batman/Bruce Wayne is going to be a lot stranger
With "Caped Crusader" not being a continuation of "The Animated Series," Bruce Timm and co. were free to re-envision their version of Batman, who will evidently be a lot "stranger" than any version of the Dark Knight we're used to. That starts with the costume, which as we've known for some time takes its cues from the original suit worn by Bruce Wayne in the pages of "Detective Comics" #27 back in 1939. But it seems we'll also be getting a new perspective on Bruce Wayne himself, with the billionaire orphan and his emotional trauma being put under the microscope.
This harkens back to Michael Keaton's interpretation of what makes a good Batman story when he stepped into the role of the Dark Knight for 1989's "Batman" and 1992's "Batman Returns." Keaton saw Bruce Wayne and his psychology as the key to his Batman films, and it seems Timm and his new team have taken a similar approach to "Caped Crusader" where, according to the EW interview, we'll explore a little more of Bruce's psyche. As Timm told the outlet:
"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."
All of this sounds very promising, but we'll have to wait to see if this return to Batman's 1940s roots pans out when the show hits Prime Video on August 1, 2024.