Batman Beyond
Batman Beyond is an American Superhero animated television series developed by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett and produced by Warner Bros. Animation in collaboration with DC Comics as a continuation of the Batman legacy. The series began airing on January 10, 1999, and ended its run on December 18, 2001. After 52 episodes spanning three seasons and one direct-to-video, the series was put on hold for the Justice League animated series, despite the network having announced plans for a fourth season.
Depicting a teenaged Batman in a futuristic Gotham City under the tutelage of an elderly Bruce Wayne, Batman Beyond is set in the chronological future of the DC animated universe, and serves as a continuance of both and The New Batman Adventures.
Though the initial announcement of the series drew mixed reactions, Batman Beyond went on to receive critical acclaim and a cult following. The show is said to explore the darker side of many Batman projects, playing on key elements such as emotions, personal relations, fear of the unknown, as well as cyberpunk and sci-fi themes such as the issues and dilemmas of innovation and technological and scientific progress affecting society, and the psychology of the character of Bruce Wayne. As such, it was considerably darker than most other children's programs at the time, although producer Bruce Timm recalls it was conceived as a kid-friendly Batman cartoon. It is also the first Batman series to portray the hero as a teenager. IGN named the show 40th on their list of "Top 100 Animated TV Series." The premise of Batman Beyond has been used in various comic book stories published by DC Comics, including an ongoing series beginning in 2011.
Plot
The pilot episode begins in 2019. Batman, despite being past his prime and in his mid 50s, continues to fight crime in a new high-tech Batsuit. In the rescue of a kidnapped heiress, Batman suffers a mild heart attack and, at risk of being beaten to death by one of the kidnappers, is forced to betray a lifelong principle by threatening to use a gun, which scared one of the kidnappers into running towards the police. Ultimately, Bruce reluctantly decides to retire from crime-fighting and vows "Never again" as he shuts down the Batcave. By this time, his longtime protégés and devoted allies have either died of natural causes or retired; his partners are still alive and have grown up and left or had falling-outs with Bruce after their retirement from their alter-egos; all of his enemies are either retired, incarcerated, in exile, or dead and he has left the Justice League.The story moves ahead 20 years later to 2039 in Neo-Gotham, a futuristic version of the old Gotham City and a megalopolis featuring staggering high rises and flying vehicles. Bruce is now an elderly man in his 70s and a recluse living in bitter isolation in Wayne Manor, with no other companion but his guard dog Ace. Terry McGinnis is an athletic 16-year-old high school student and reformed troublemaker with a deeply ingrained sense of personal justice. Living on difficult terms with his father Warren McGinnis, Terry disobeys his curfew one night to meet up with his girlfriend Dana Tan, only to incur the wrath of a group of the gang called the Jokerz harassing them. A high-speed motorcycle chase between Terry and the Jokerz leads them to the grounds of Wayne Manor, where they run into the elderly Bruce Wayne. Bruce and Terry fend off the Jokerz side-by-side, but the exertion aggravates Bruce's heart condition. Terry helps Bruce back to the manor and, while exploring the mansion after realizing that he is unable to leave the mansion as Ace is guarding it, stumbles upon the entrance to the Batcave and thus discovers Bruce's secrets, only to be chased out by an angered Bruce.
Terry returns home to discover that his father has been murdered, apparently by the vengeful Jokerz. Soon after, though, he discovers that his father had stumbled onto information about the production of illegal chemical weapons by Derek Powers through Wayne-Powers and that the man actually responsible for his father's murder is Powers' personal assistant/bodyguard Mr. Fixx. Terry goes to Bruce for help but he refuses, feeling that he is too old and too weak to be of any use and instead tells Terry to take the evidence to Barbara Gordon. After the evidence of the illegal weapon production is forcibly taken from Terry by Derek Powers, Terry subsequently steals the Batsuit, intending to bring Powers to justice. Bruce initially opposes all of Terry's efforts and vehemently demands that he return the suit, but Terry asks Bruce to let him take on the Batman mantle, partially by drawing on the fact Bruce lost both of his parents to a criminal he never caught, and that he has the chance to catch his father's murderer. Bruce allows Terry to be Batman, and as Batman, Terry subsequently defeats Mr. Fixx. During the battle, Powers is exposed to the chemical and forced to flee into hiding to receive treatment, which subsequently mutates him into a radiation-emitting entity, though he uses artificial skin to hide the accident. Realizing that crime and corruption are running rampant in Gotham without Batman's presence, Bruce offers Terry the chance to assume the role of Batman, with Bruce himself mentoring Terry and in addition to working as Bruce's chauffeur and assistant so that Terry can support his family.
The new Batman soon develops his own rogues gallery, with both new villains as well as some of his mentor's old foes, such as Mr. Freeze rejuvenated; Bane's strength-enhancing drug Venom reborn as slap-on patches; the longevous Ra's al Ghul; and the Joker himself, somewhat inevitably.
Terry also makes allies in Neo-Gotham, including computer genius Maxine "Max" Gibson. After discovering Batman's secret identity, Maxine helps Terry with everything from computer hacking to babysitting. Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon also works with Terry. Though initially unhappy about another person following in Bruce's dangerous footsteps, she admits that the city needs Batman, and that Terry could not be deterred from being Batman any more than she could have been from being Batgirl. He also has a relationship with Melanie Walker, who was forced to do the bidding of her family's new Royal Flush Gang under the code name Ten. Terry and Melanie's relationship is similar to that of Bruce and Selina Kyle.
Cast
- Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis:
- Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne:
- Cree Summer as Maxine "Max" Gibson:
- Frank Welker as Ace:
Episodes
Episode list
Crossovers
The third season of Batman Beyond featured the two-part episode "The Call" with a futuristic Justice League, a springboard for the Justice League animated series. The setting and characters of Batman Beyond were also briefly revived in Static Shock during the episode "Future Shock" in which Static is accidentally transported 40 years into the future.Justice League Unlimited revisited the Batman Beyond world twice in 2005. The first was in "The Once and Future Thing", which featured Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern transported 50 years into the future to stop a time-travelling villain with the help of the future Justice League.
The second time was meant to be the de facto series finale for Batman Beyond: the episode "Epilogue" reveals that Bruce Wayne is actually Terry McGinnis' biological father. The story, set 15 years after Batman Beyond, centers on Terry tracking down an elderly Amanda Waller. She explains through flashbacks that, even though she trusted and respected Batman, she was aware of him growing older and slower, thus accepting the idea of either Bruce retiring or being killed at some point. Finding the idea of a world without Batman unacceptable, Waller used her Project Cadmus connections to gather the technology for "Project Batman Beyond", whose goal was to physically create a new Batman, starting with a secretly collected sample of Bruce Wayne's DNA. After finding a young Neo-Gotham couple—the McGinnises—with psychological profiles nearly identical to those of Bruce's parents, a nanotech solution was injected into Warren McGinnis to rewrite his reproductive material. The eventual result was his wife Mary McGinnis giving birth to Terry, a child sharing the genetic traits of his mother and Bruce Wayne. When Terry was eight years old, Waller employed an elderly Phantasm as an assassin to kill Terry's family, hoping the trauma would put him on the path to becoming Batman. However, Beaumont could not commit the act, arguing that Bruce would never resort to murder to achieve his goals. Waller eventually conceded that Beaumont had been right and abolished the project altogether. Eight years afterward, Warren would be murdered, and Terry would meet Bruce by happenstance—resulting in Terry becoming Batman's successor. Waller concludes by reminding Terry that he is Bruce's son, not his clone, and that, despite the circumstances of his existence, he still has free will to live out his own life; Terry comes to terms with his revelations, and continues in being Batman. With a new sense of purpose, Terry plans to propose to Dana, while continuing his life of crimefighting. Whether Bruce was the genetic father of Matt McGinnis as well was not clearly established in-story, since nothing was stated as to the longevity of the alterations made to Warren McGinnis' DNA; however, the series' creators have said that this is the case. The fact that Matt was born with black hair despite both of his biological parents having red hair is also an indicator of Bruce's dominant DNA.
Animation
In order to complete the series, Warner Bros. Animation outsourced Batman Beyond to Dong Yang Animation, Koko Enterprises and Seoul Movie in Seoul, South Korea. While the South Korean studios animated the series' episodes, the feature film was animated by TMS Entertainment in Tokyo, Japan.Spinoff
A spinoff from Batman Beyond, an animated series called The Zeta Project, featured a revamped version of the synthoid Zeta from the Batman Beyond episode "Zeta". Batman would guest-star in the episode "Shadows". The supervillain Stalker was to have appeared in The Zeta Project episode "Taffy Time", but ultimately did not do so. The second-season episode "Ro's Gift" has an appearance by the Brain Trust from the Batman Beyond episode "Mind Games". Terry McGinnis/Batman was originally slated to appear in this episode as well, but was cut since Bruce Timm and company were working on Justice League.Reception
While the idea of Batman Beyond seemed as if it were "not a proper continuation of the legacy of the Dark Knight", it gathered acclaim after its release. It has been praised for its dark, mature, and often unsettling storytelling. The show was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which it won in 2001 for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program and Outstanding Music Direction and Composition. In addition, the show was nominated for five Annie Awards and won two of those nominations in 1999 and 2001. In 2009, IGN.com named Batman Beyond the 40th best animated television series of all time. Greg Weisman commented that while the series was well made, it felt more like a Spider-Man series and much less like Batman.Home video
VHS
Some episodes of the series were released on VHS from 1999–2000, including the series' premiere, and select episodes as five VHS volumes containing three episodes per tape, and the direct-to-video film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.Season DVD
Individual DVD
- *Note: The audio commentaries for both the edited and uncut versions of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker were provided by the same contributors; however, both versions are slightly different from each other.
Blu-ray
In other media
Comics
Soundtrack
Released on August 31, 1999, the soundtrack to Batman Beyond features many of the same composers who worked on the previous animated Batman shows. The music style is more industrial, with some metal influence, to tie in with the show's futuristic cyberpunk genre.Toys
In 2000, Burger King included Batman Beyond toys in their kids' meals.Films
A direct-to-video feature film, ', was released on December 12, 2000. The original release was censored for elements of violence and death, though a second, uncensored version was later released. Nevertheless, it received critical acclaim for its story, voice acting, animation and score. A second Batman Beyond film, focusing on the origins of Terry McGinnis, multiple clones of Bruce Wayne and the appearance of an elderly Selina Kyle, was planned by Bruce Timm and Glen Murakami, though it was never scripted, as it never went beyond a 45-minute impromptu plotting session between the two. Unfortunately, it was finally scrapped due to the dark tones and controversies surrounding Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.Among the live-action films proposed between the critical failure of Batman & Robin and the reboot of the Batman franchise was Batman Beyond. In August 2000, Warner Bros. announced that it was developing a live action film adaptation with Boaz Yakin attached to co-write and direct. The TV series' creators, Dini and Alan Burnett, were hired to write a screenplay for the feature film, with Neal Stephenson as consultant. Yakin hoped to cast Clint Eastwood as the retired Batman. By July 2001, a first draft was turned in to the studio, and the writers were waiting to see if a rewrite would be needed. The studio, also exploring other takes of Batman in development eventually placed Batman Beyond on hold in August 2001, but ultimately canceled the proposal. Yakin reportedly wanted to the film to be dark, nihilistic, and with swearing and violence, and not the PG-13 film the studio wanted.
In January 2019, rumors began to circulate that Warner Animation Group was developing an animated Batman Beyond film following the critical and commercial success of Sony Pictures Animation's '. However, it was later reported that no such film was in the works.. In an August 2019 interview with DC Universe, Paul Dini revealed that Warner Bros. continues to express interest in a film adaptation but have put emphasis on other projects. In June 2020, Michael Keaton entered talks to play an elderly Bruce Wayne, reprising his role from Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns in the DCEU film The Flash, which is set for release in 2022. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. hopes for Keaton to return for multiple DCEU films in a way "akin to the role played by Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something of a mentor or guide or even string-puller."
Video games
The first appearance of the Terry McGinnis version of Batman in a video game is in the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color video game '.The Batman Beyond Batsuit appears as an alternate costume in Justice League Heroes and as downloadable content in ' and '.
A Batman Beyond DLC was included in the third Lego Batman video game.
A "Batman of the Future" character pack featuring the Terry McGinnis Batman with all its trademark gadgets and other Batman Beyond era characters were revealed to be PS3/PS4 exclusive DLC for '.
Rocksteady Studios created their own unique take on the Batman Beyond Batsuit for as a pre-order bonus along with The Dark Knight Returns Batsuit titled "Gotham's Future Pack".
Animation
In April 2014, a Batman Beyond short by Darwyn Cooke premiered at WonderCon. The short, which saw Will Friedle and Kevin Conroy reprise their roles, sees Batman battle a Batman android in the Batcave with help from the elderly Bruce Wayne and the Batmobile. Once defeated, Batman and Bruce look out to see and prepare to fight seven additional invading androids resembling the designs from Beware the Batman, The Batman, , The Dark Knight Returns, Batman, Batman, and the original design by Bill Finger. Though the androids' source is unstated, they're reminiscent of the story arc from Batman: The Animated Series involving the computer program HARDAC.Batman Beyond is alluded in Teen Titans Go!. In the episode "Sandwich Thief", Robin travels to the future to his future self Nightwing's apartment where a poster of the Batman Beyond Batman can be seen, indicating that Nightwing admires this incarnation of Batman.