The
Future of the Future Dark Knight Looks Bleak
Dick Grayson (with additional
reporting by Gookie)
Mon., Jan 29, 2001 7:38
An inside source informed World's
Finest thatBatman Beyond will not likely be picked up for
next season.
The source speculated that the show "will likely air in reruns on
Kids WB for one more year, then shipped
over to Cartoon Network, where they have the option to pick up the
show if ratings are good. If the show was greenlit now, it would be
nearly impossible to create because the entire crew has left pursue
other shows."
|
| L to R: Alan Burnett, Kevin
Conroy (voice of Batman/BruceWayne), and Paul Dini at the
Wizard World Comicon '98; Chicago, Il. [Photo © Craig Crumpton] |
Leaving Batman Beyond to work on Cartoon Network's upcoming
Justice
League are directors Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Curt Geda and
Glen Murakami, as well as story editors/writers Rich Fogel and Stan
Berkowitz. Writers Hilary J. Bader and Robert Goodman are now on
The Zeta
Project and the remainder of the crew is working on Static
Shock or other projects. The only way new episodes of Batman
Beyond will be produced in the future is if Cartoon Network greenlights
it. Even then, the wait would be at least eighteen months. There
are four episodes remaining this season.
Toon Zone first reported the news on
the fate of Batman Beyond back in November. [Click
here to read that article.] The one positive change since that
time is that Justice League has now been confirmed to be
produced by Warner Bros Animation. While the future of Batman
Beyond doesn't look too bright, WBA's producing Justice League
gives a much more promising future for the studio.
The Zeta Project will return for a second season if the
ratings are good. Batman will be appearing in a crossover episode
during the first season, the first episode of which premiered this
past weekend. And production has begun on Season 2 of Static
Shock, which will include "a very, very special celebrity voice"and
a story based around that is being written by Chris Simmons.
As for another direct-to-video Batman Beyond feature, Paul Dini
is said to have "some ideas kicking around", but no other development
is in progress. Dini continues to work on a script for the live-actionBatman
Beyond movie, along with Boaz Yakin and Alan Burnett.
In related news, Jean MacCurdy is reportedly "pursuing the option
of releasing Batman
Beyond: Return of the Joker unedited." |
