Product Code Database
Example Keywords: linux -resident $85-180
barcode-scavenger
   » » Wiki: Batman Beyond
Tag Wiki 'Batman Beyond'.
Tag

Batman Beyond (also known as Batman of the Future in Europe) is an American animated superhero television series based on the superhero , and serving as the to both and The New Batman Adventures. Created and developed by , , and and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation, the series began airing on January 10, 1999; in the United Kingdom, it began airing on September 4, 2000.

(2025). 9781476665993, McFarland & Co.

The series follows the exploits of teenager Terry McGinnis, who becomes the new Batman for the city of Gotham in the near future. Terry is aided and mentored by the retired Batman, Bruce Wayne, as he faces a variety of criminals including several new supervillains. Despite being conceived as a kid-friendly Batman series by Warner Bros. Animation, it ended up being darker than its predecessor Batman: The Animated Series,Batman Beyond: Making of (DVD)

(2004). 9781893905306, TwoMorrows Publishing. .
yet went on to receive critical acclaim and gained a .

Batman Beyond ran for three seasons, concluding with a , . The decision to end production on the series came due to Warner Bros. Animation opting to favor pushing forward production for the Justice League animated series, though with Batman Beyond featuring crossovers with additional shows in the DC Animated Universe.


Plot
In 2019, is in his late fifties and still fighting crime as , despite suffering recurring health issues relating to his age and past injuries. During a rescue of a kidnapped heiress, Bruce suffers a heart attack, and at the risk of being killed by a criminal, betrays a lifelong principle by threatening him with a gun, the weapon used to murder his parents and motivate him to become Batman in the first place. Realizing that he will inevitably have to break his strict code to never kill for survival if he continues to fight crime, Bruce reluctantly decides to permanently retire as Batman. By this point, his butler and confidant Alfred Pennyworth and additional colleagues such as and James Gordon have since died. All of his rogues gallery are either still incarcerated or residing at , reformed, missing, in exile, retired, or dead. Bruce has also severed ties with and the Justice League.

Twenty years later, Bruce lives alone in Wayne Manor with only the company of his Doberman Ace. One-night, teenage Terry McGinnis is chased by thugs onto the lawn of Wayne Manor, and he and Bruce fight them together, but Bruce has another heart attack shortly afterwards. Terry takes Bruce inside and takes care of him. Exploring the mansion, Terry discovers the and asks Bruce to let him take up his mantle.

Terry's decision to become Batman stems from sharing a similar origin story to Bruce, in that his father, Warren McGinnis, is murdered after learning of an illegal weapons project being conducted at Wayne-Powers. Bruce grants Terry a high-tech Batsuit he made shortly before his retirement, granting him increased strength and agility, flight capabilities, stealth, and enhanced sensor systems, with Bruce allowing him to use it not only to get justice for his father's murder, but also to prevent the illegal weapon being manufactured being sold to a foreign power. His actions lead to Bruce accepting him as the new Batman and providing him cover for his work under the pretense of Terry doing part-time work for him outside of school hours, with the two having moments where they differ in methods but also gaining respect for each other's work as Batman.

Terry mainly lives with his remaining family - his mother Mary, who was divorced from Warren around the time of his death; and his brother Matt - while dating fellow student Dana Tan, though his life as Batman creates complications to their relationship. Alongside Bruce, Terry is aided in his life by Max Gibson, a close friend and highly intelligent student who uncovers his secret several weeks after he becomes Batman, serving in a role similar to Alfred Pennyworth. Apart from Max, Terry's role as Batman is also known to , who aided Bruce as before parting ways with him to become the Gotham City's Police Department's new police commissioner following her father's death. Like Bruce, Terry develops his own rogues gallery amongst the criminals he brings to justice, and also faces some of Bruce's own enemies from his time as the Dark Knight.


Voice cast
  • as Terry McGinnis / Batman:
    The second Batman, he is a high school student and former delinquent. Under the pretense of doing errands for Bruce, Terry fights crime as the new Batman. Terry was chosen to be the new Dark Knight as he shared a similar loss as Bruce had, that being the death of a parent (although unlike Bruce, who lost both of his parents, Terry only lost his father).
  • as :
    The original Batman, although initially reluctant he later becomes Terry's employer, mentor, and predecessor who guides Terry through the Batcomputer but also occasionally ventures into the field to help his successor if the situation demands it, despite the risks associated with his age. During his final mission, rescuing a wealthy heiress as the Dark Knight twenty years prior to the events of the main story, Bruce suffered a that nearly cost him his life, forcing him to break his primary moral principle by threatening to kill a criminal with a gun in self-defense. Horrified that he nearly used the type of weapon that took his parents' ( and ) lives and the very thing that drove him to become a vigilante, and afraid of what he might do next, Wayne reluctantly hung up the cowl.
  • as Maxine "Max" Gibson: A genius high schooler and friend of Terry's. She discovers his secret identity, and from then on occasionally helps Batman in a role akin to that of Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's deceased former butler, though she is considered a nuisance to his predecessor (but less so as time went on). Her parents are divorced and she has an unnamed sister.
  • as Dana Tan:
    Terry's on-and-off girlfriend in high school who is initially and formerly unaware of his secret identity as the new Dark Knight, and thus surprised or upset by his frequent absences which she only knows due to him working as a personal assistant for Bruce Wayne, to support his family financially following his father's death. She also has a father who is disapproving of Terry because of the latter's past as an irresponsible delinquent, which serves as a reminder and another motivation for Terry being Batman.
  • as Ace:
    Bruce Wayne's pet dog and his sole companion in Wayne Manor, the billionaire rescued and took in the stray after the canine defended him from a thug during one of Wayne's annual visits in memory of his parents to . Fiercely loyal to Bruce, he eventually develops a bond with Terry as well.
  • Stockard Channing (Seasons 1 and 2) and (Season 3) as :
    The new Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, having succeeded her father Jim and one of Bruce's former crime-fighting partners, Batgirl. Barbara was at one point in her younger years romantically involved with Bruce, which ended badly. Unlike her father, Barbara initially has a rocky relationship with the new Batman, being aware of his criminal record and showing resentment towards Bruce for dragging him into this life and is at first against him intervening in police duty, even threatening him with arrest. This is revealed to have been due to a long standing grudge towards Bruce for how he treated his former partners and also because of . She slowly gains a grudging respect for Terry after he helps her in several sticky situations and begins acknowledging his help whenever needed, though she does not use a , unlike her father. However, she still has direct access to the Batcave. She is married to Sam Young, the District Attorney of Neo-Gotham.


Episodes

Crossovers
The third season of Batman Beyond featured the two-part episode "The Call" with (for the first time) a futuristic , a for the Justice League animated series. The setting and characters of Batman Beyond were also briefly revived in 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" (Part 2), which featured , and Green Lantern transported 50 years into the future to stop a time-travelling villain with the help of the future Justice League (Batman II, Static, and Warhawk).

The second time was meant to be the de facto for Batman Beyond: the episode "Epilogue" reveals that Bruce Wayne is Terry McGinnis's biological father. The story, set 15 years after Batman Beyond, centers on Terry (now in his early 30s) tracking down an elderly . She explains through flashbacks that, even though she grew to trust and respect Batman, she was aware of him aging, getting slower, and getting weaker, 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 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. Some years after Bruce retired, Waller found a young Neo-Gotham couple—the McGinnises—with psychological profiles nearly identical to those of Bruce's parents and gave Warren McGinnis a solution to rewrite his material with that of Bruce. 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 in her Phantasm alias 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 she would be doing something against what Bruce stood for. Waller eventually conceded that Beaumont had been right and abolished the project altogether. Eight years afterward, Warren would be murdered because of , 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 to live out his own life; Although not his clone she later tells Terry how he is not even close to as smart as Bruce Wayne but he does have his heart. 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.


Animation
In order to complete the series, Warner Bros. Animation outsourced Batman Beyond to Dong Yang Animation, Koko Enterprises and Seoul Movie (a subsidiary of TMS) in Seoul, South Korea. While the South Korean studios animated the series' episodes, the feature film was animated by TMS Entertainment in Tokyo, Japan.


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 , with some influence, to tie in with the show's futuristic genre.


Critical reception
While the idea of Batman Beyond seemed as if it were "not a proper continuation of the legacy of the Dark Knight", the series received critical acclaim and a cult following after its release. It has been praised for its dark and cyberpunk 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 and won two of those nominations in 1999 and 2001. In 2009, .com named Batman Beyond the 40th-best animated television series of all time.

Den of Geek, when listing the best episodes of the series, wrote that "Batman Beyond's first year on the air represents the show at its most realized form. It's the only season of the show that's written at the same level of quality as Batman: The Animated Series. Not to say that later seasons don't have their moments, but it seemed like the writers approached Beyond as a Saturday morning cartoon during seasons two and three, whereas during season one, they most certainly did not." Creator has stated Batman Beyond is the most uneven series of the main DC Animated Universe shows, particular in regard to the latter two seasons. Forum post commented that while the series was well made, it felt more like a series and much less like Batman. Batman Beyond was cited by actor , who voice-acted in , as his introduction to the Batman franchise.


Home media

VHS
Some episodes of the series were released on from 1999 to 2000, including the series' premiere (as Batman Beyond: The Movie), and select episodes as five VHS volumes containing three episodes per tape (the same contents as the individual volume releases, see below), and the direct-to-video film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (edited version).


Season DVDs
Special features: creators' commentary on two key episodes; Inside Batman Beyond : Meet the Series' Creators; Music of the Knight: Enjoy Score-Only Versions of Key Scenes.
Special features: creators' commentary on two key episodes; Inside Batman Beyond : The Panel – In-Depth Dialogue with the Show's Creators. DVD art designed by Jesse Stagg at RDI.
Special features: Inside Batman Beyond; featurettes on four episodes by producers, directors and Will Friedle. DVD art designed by Jesse Stagg at RDI.
Special features: creator commentaries, season retrospectives, bonus 9th disc with 95 minutes of new special features, Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics documentary and three all-new, all-revealing featurettes.


Individual DVDs
Commentary by the filmmakers*; behind-the-scenes documentary; deleted scenes; animation tests; music video Crash by featuring ; animated character bios; interactive menus; production notes; trailers; scene access; subtitles: English and French.
Commentary by the filmmakers*; behind-the-scenes documentary; deleted scenes; animation tests; music video Crash by Mephisto Odyssey featuring Static-X; animated character bios; interactive menus; production notes; trailers; scene access; subtitles: English and French.
Compilation of the (by production order, not by air date) of the series: "Rebirth" (Parts 1 and 2), "Golem", "Dead Man's Hand", "Meltdown", and "The Winning Edge"
Contains the episodes: "Golem", "Heroes", "Spellbound", "Shriek", "Disappearing Inque", and "Hooked Up", plus all of the episodes as one long movie
  • *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
Batman Beyond was released on on October 29, 2019. The four-disc set includes all 52 episodes and the uncut version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Forty-one of the episodes and Return of the Joker were remastered. The remaining 11 episodes were an .


Spin-off
A spin-off from Batman Beyond, an animated series called The Zeta Project, featured the android Zeta from the Batman Beyond episode "Zeta", who was redesigned to possess a more humanoid appearance. Batman would guest star in the episode "Shadows". The super villain 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 and company were working on Justice League.


In other media

Comics

Books
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, a novelization of the feature film written by Michael Teitelbaum, was released on November 1, 2000.

Two Batman Beyond books for young readers were released on November 14, 2000: Batman Beyond: New Hero in Town and Batman Beyond: No Place Like Home, followed by two more, released on May 28, 2002: Batman Beyond: Hear No Evil and Batman Beyond: Grounded.


Toys
In 1999, released a Batman Beyond Toyline with sub-lines. In 2000, included Batman Beyond toys in their kids' meals.

In 2023, /ref>


Films
A feature film, , was released on December 12, 2000. The original release was censored for elements of violence and death following the Columbine High School massacre, 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 , was planned by and , though it was never scripted, as it never went beyond a 45-minute impromptu plotting session between the two. The project was scrapped due to the dark tones and controversies surrounding Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Despite this, the plot elements were eventually reworked into the second-season finale of Justice League Unlimited titled "Epilogue" (which was intended to be the series finale until the show was renewed for a third and final season) where Terry discovers his genetic origins. planted Bruce Wayne's DNA into Warren McGinnis through his routine flu shot and later helps create a copy of Bruce Wayne; Selina Kyle is briefly mentioned in passing.

Among the live action films proposed between the critical failure of Batman & Robin and the was Batman Beyond. In August 2000, Warner Bros. announced that it was developing a live-action with attached to co-write and direct. The TV series' creators, Dini and , were hired to write a screenplay for the feature film, with as consultant. Yakin hoped to cast 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 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 , but was later reported that no such film was in the works. In the later August 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. Actor has expressed interest in playing Terry McGinnis in the possible film adaptation. In June 2020, entered talks to play an elderly Bruce Wayne, reprising his role from 's Batman (1989) and (1992), in the DCEU film, The Flash, which was set for release in 2023. 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 L. Jackson as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something of a mentor or guide or even string-puller". Keaton was officially confirmed to return in August of the same year. In December 2022, it was announced that , writer of The Flash and the cancelled Batgirl film, had been hired to write a script for a live-action Batman Beyond film. The plot would have involved an aged Bruce Wayne, continuing the plot threads from his appearance in The Flash, and would have included the return of Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman. Development on the film was shelved after and were appointed as co-heads of DC Studios. In January 2023, Gunn and Safran stated that there is potential for a future multiverse project in which they may incorporate Keaton's incarnation of Batman.

In March 2023 it was reported that an animated Batman Beyond film had been put into development, written by Daniel Casey and serving as WB's answer to . However, the project was put into commission under the leadership of , who served as DC Films president from 2018 to 2022, and it is currently unknown if it is still happening under Gunn and Safran's direction, though Jeff Sneider of The Hollywood Reporter noted that nobody who was working on the project was told it was cancelled.


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 (such as the flying suit and the ability to turn invisible) 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".

Batman Beyond appears in the mobile games Teeny Titans and Teen Titans Go! Figure.


Animation
In April 2014, a Batman Beyond short by premiered at . The short, which saw Will Friedle and Kevin Conroy reprise their roles, sees Batman (Terry McGinnis) battle a Batman android (resembling the design from The New Batman Adventures) in the Batcave with help from the elderly Bruce Wayne and the (resembling the design from Batman: The Animated Series). 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 (1989 film), Batman (1960s TV series), and the original design by . Though the androids' source is unstated, they are reminiscent of 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 father 's apartment where a poster of the Batman Beyond Batman can be seen, indicating that Nightwing admires this incarnation of Batman.


External links

: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Page 1 of 1
1
Page 1 of 1
1

Account

Social:
Pages:  ..   .. 
Items:  .. 

Navigation

General: Atom Feed Atom Feed  .. 
Help:  ..   .. 
Category:  ..   .. 
Media:  ..   .. 
Posts:  ..   ..   .. 

Statistics

Page:  .. 
Summary:  .. 
1 Tags
10/10 Page Rank
5 Page Refs