If you ask the average Bat-fan what their favorite animated version of Batman is, most would say “Batman: The Animated Series.” The show is definitely top tier and it introduced the world to Harley Quinn, along with spawning several DC Comics cartoons.
“Batman: The Animated Series” co-creator Bruce Timm is back with a new Batman cartoon, which we are excited for!
“Batman: Caped Crusader” is set to debut later this year on Prime Video. Amazon released some first looks at the series and it looks pretty interesting. It was previously announced in 2021 to be produced by HBO Max, who decided to pass on it. Timm and character designer James Tucker have assured the new series will be in it’s own continuity. One key difference is “Caped Crusader” is set in the 1940s, as it reimagines Batman mythology.
“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,” Timm told EW. “Early on, we decided there would be no computers and no cell phones. That changed everything.” Having a modern day cartoon set in the decade where Bob Kane created Batman sounds really cool.
Big Changes for Harley Quinn
Another huge difference is Harley Quinn will not be attached to the Joker. “I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her, but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend,” Timm said. “So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. 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?”
Can you imagine a lighthearted Dr. Quinzel switching to a stone-cold serious Harley Quinn? Along with the personality switch, Harley will not be an Arkham Asylum psychiatrist. She will be your run-of-the-mill mental health professional, who is assigned Bruce Wayne as a patient. And Bruce won’t be portrayed as a man obsessed with the death of his parents, thought that traumatic incident does have an effect.
Catwoman and Clayface will also have different styles compared to what we’ve seen in the past. Selina Kyle will be back in her original purple costume, no more leather. She’ll also have a personality similar to Barbara Stanwych‘s character in “The Lady Eve.” Clayface will not be the gigantic mud monster that most media has portayed him as. Instead he will also pull from his original comic book appearance , which was inspired by horror movie classics.
“Batman: Caped Crusader” is set to premiere on August 1th, 2024. All 10 episodes will be streaming on Prime Video.
