HBO Max Not Moving Forward With ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Series, Being Shopped To Other Networks

HBO Max Not Moving Forward With ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Series, Being Shopped To Other Networks

The list of bizarre decisions at HBO Max under their new Warner Bros Discovery overlords continues to grow, as it’s announced the ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’, an animated series from ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ creator Bruce Timm, with J.J. Abrams & Matt Reeves exec producing, will not be moving forward at the streamer…

The series was set to utilize the most state-of-the-art animation techniques and technologies available to once again reinvent Batman and his iconic rogue’s gallery with sophisticated storytelling, nuanced characters and intense action sequences all set in a visually striking world.

The series came from Bruce Timm, the man behind ‘Batman: The Animated Series’, which ran for 4 seasons from 1992-95, and is often hailed as one of the best depictions of the caped crusader on-screen. The thematic complexity and dark aesthetics lifted it from your run-of-the-mill cartoon series to something which sat on a whole different level. J.J. Abrams, who is currently developing a live-action ‘Justice League Dark’ series for HBO Max, and Matt Reeves (the man behind ‘The Batman’ movie, and ‘The Penguin’ spin-off tv series) would have exec produced with Timm.

‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ was originally given a straight-to-series order back in May last year. However, when the newly merged Warner Bros Discovery took over running things in April, they have been taking a hatchet to the company’s content output, with a string of eyebrow-rasing decisions. The most high profile of these was the cancellation of the nearly complete ‘Batgirl’ movie, writing off millions of dollars in the process.

Even stranger, ‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ is now going to be shopped to other broadcasters, so we could end up in the odd situation where a Batman project, one of DC’s crown jewels, ends up airing on a network or streamer not owned by WB… It should be noted that the original show did air on FOX Kids back in the day, although that was a very different time when companies were less concerned about holding onto IP. The current FOX channel does rather like its animated output, so could be a possible new home for it. We’ll let you know if we hear more, but for the moment, the project is in limbo.