There have been a number of rumors, or even actual attempts at making Batman Beyond movies over the years, whether it’s in live-action or simply animated. While we were fortunate enough to have the Return of the Joker feature back in 2000, the thought of seeing the character again on the big screen, with newer animation techniques used, is pretty intriguing and appealing. Sadly, as of this writing, nothing has come out of the several reports of Batman Beyond getting another movie.
However, we now have an idea of how a new Batman Beyond animated movie might look like, as concept art for a somewhat recent pitch has surfaced online. The pitch comes from the team of Yuhki Demers, who worked on the impressive and successful Spider-Verse movies and writer/director Patrick Harpin (whose credits include My Dad the Bounty Hunter).
Demers shared the artwork on Instagram, with the following message – “5 months ago we walked into [Warner Bros. Pictures] [DC Official] and pitched a Batman Beyond Animated Feature. Before we pitched, they warned us “there is absolutely no way we can do a movie”, but they loved our enthusiasm. We pitched the outline for the entire film, and what started as a ‘never’ turned into a ‘maybe’. In the time since, we’ve been pitching our way up the company hoping to get to [James Gunn]. But for now, here’s a taste of what we’ve been cooking.” Demers also encourages people to “like” and share the art, in the hopes this would gain more traction and possibly culminate in the animated movie actually being produced.
Batman Beyond (Terry McGinnis) was created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm and made his debut in the eponymous animated series that debuted in 1999, part of the “DC Animated Universe”, being a sequel to the classic Batman: The Animated Series. He became a pretty popular character soon enough, and over the years he was also included in the mainstream comics published by DC, as well as showing up in other animated projects, occasionally. The premise follows an elderly Bruce Wayne who has retired from being Batman, due in part to his age. As such he trains the younger Terry to take on the mantle of Batman. It’s a pretty clever idea which coupled with the futuristic setting, the new tech and gadgets and the all-new rogues gallery, make for an entertaining and engaging show. Or movie, as the case might be.
While it remains to be seen when or if Batman Beyond will get another movie of his own, the character is supposed to appear in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part 2 – the second part of an animated movie trilogy inspired by the well-known comic book event, set to be released in April, with Part 3 supposed to come out later this year. Though it is too early to know if Batman Beyond will appear there as well. For that matter we do not know how much screen time he will get in Part 2 either, but including him is still an interesting and welcome way to celebrate the character’s 25th anniversary.
In the meantime, let’s all just keep sharing the artwork and keep the buzz going. Let’s keep dreaming of a new Batman Beyond animated film.
