Warner Bros. and DC's The Batman trailer has been all the rage over the past week, inspiring some fans to create their own version of the preview. Now, one such re-cut combines the DC Universe of Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader with that of Batman: The Animated Series.
Long before director Matt Reeves' envisioned The Batman, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini joined forces with Mitch Brian to develop Batman: The Animated Series for Warner Bros. in the '90s. What resulted was an Emmy Award-winning series that consisted of 85 episodes, launched the acclaimed DC Animated Universe, and is still considered by many to be the best Batman adaptation to date.
As DC FanDome's The Batman trailer showed, Reeves and Pattinson are going for a grounded and gritty aesthetic that may even surpass the 'realistic' tone of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Nonetheless, YouTuber Darth Bender's fan-made The Batman trailer combines footage from the aforementioned animated series, demonstrating that the hit show was not without its own share of dark and serious moments. Cutting together clips from Batman: The Animated Series with audio from the preview for Reeves' film, the fan-made trailer reminds audiences of the show's widely praised depictions of both the Caped Crusader and the Riddler, who were voiced by Kevin Conroy and John Glover, respectively. Of course, The Animated Series' versions of Penguin, Catwoman, and Alfred are also included in the fan-made preview, as all three characters played a prominent role in The Batman trailer.
As both the fan-made and real trailer for The Batman show, Reeves' film will follow the Dark Knight as he comes into conflict with a serial-killer-inspired version of the Riddler, who will be played by Paul Dano. Because the film follows Batman during his second year of crime-fighting, Zoe Kravitz's Selina Kyle and Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobblepot will presumably be on their own path to becoming the Catwoman and Penguin fans know from the comics. Two sequels and two spin-off series are in development, so The Batman will clearly be just the beginning of Reeves' DC Universe.
The fan-made trailer is also a good reminder that Bruce Timm is currently hard at work developing a new animated Batman series. Titled Batman: Caped Crusader, the series will combine the talents of Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Reeves, all three of whom will serve as executive producers.
Whether or not The Batman lives up to the hype remains to be seen. However, few can deny that Reeves' past success combined with the talented ensemble cast should make for an interesting depiction of the Batman world if nothing else.
The Batman is scheduled to be released in theaters on March 4, 2022.
Source: Darth Blender/YouTube