HBO Max canceled the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader

October 3, 2022

HBO Max canceled the animated series Batman: The Caped Crusader which should have been released in 2023.

According to Variety, executive producers Bruce Timm, JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves' Batman: Caped Crusader are on the block. Batman: Caped Crusader was supposed to be based on the acclaimed series Batman: The Animated Series co-created by Timm, broadcast from 1992-1995.

Besides Batman: The Caped Crusaders, The Streaming Network will not go on with the following animated projects: Merry Little Batman, The Day the Earth blew: A Looney Tunes movie, Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical, I Did It Do It For The Holidays: A Story by Steve Urkel and the fantastic world of Gumball: the movie.

This latest round of cancellations is part of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery's strategy to divest from children's and family programming. This week HBO Max removed about 200 episodes of Sesame Street.

HBO Max had previously shelved the nearly completed $ 90 million film Batgirl and Scoob !: Holiday Haunt, a follow-up to the 2020 Scoob movie. It has also been quietly pulling TV shows and movies from its streaming library in recent weeks. Further cuts were expected, as Warner Bros. Discovery plans to merge its two streaming services - HBO Max and Discovery + - from the summer of 2023

HBO Max and Cartoon Network had given the green light to the order of the new animated series Batman: The Caped Crusader , which revisits Batman mythology through the visionary lens of executive producers Bruce Timm, JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves and produced by Warner Bros Animation (WBA), Bad Robot Productions and 6th & Idaho.

The news was announced by Tom Ascheim, President, Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics (GKYAC) and Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) and Cartoon Network Studios (CNS).

“It's always fun to feed the insatiable appetite fans have for everything Batman-related,” Ascheim said. " Batman: The Caped Crusader it will entertain both new and diehard fans and, with such an impressive creative team, we know we have another classic Batman future in the works. ”

Batman: The Caped Crusader represents Timm's return to the iconic DC character in animated episode television, which began with Batman: The Animated Series , Emmy Award winner. Praised by many for being the benchmark of animated superhero fiction, Batman: The Animated Series is considered to be one of the best representations of the Dark Knight by any means.

Now, nearly 30 years after the series premiere, Timm is once again taking on the role of the Bat alongside two of the industry's most acclaimed directors: JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves. Using available cutting-edge animation techniques and technologies, this powerful creative collaboration will once again reinvent Batman and his iconic thieves gallery with sophisticated storytelling, nuanced characters and intense action sequences, all set in a visually world. amazing.

" Batman: The Animated Series it was a masterpiece that shaped the perception of the character for an entire generation of fans, ”Register noted. "It is in that spirit that we are bringing together three master storytellers in JJ, Matt and Bruce - each with their own intuitive understanding and affection for the character - to create a new series that will continue with the same groundbreaking legacy."

Executive Producers Timm, Abrams and Reeves commented, “We are extremely excited to be working together to bring this character back, to tell compelling new stories in Gotham City. The series will be thrilling, cinematic and evocative of Batman's noir roots, while diving deeper into the psychology of these iconic characters. We can't wait to share this new world ”.

Having already brought explosive new stories from the universes of Star Trek e Star Wars , two-time Emmy winner Abrams is now taking on DC fandom as a producer of zatanna and a film by Superman untitled written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and as executive producer of Justice League Dark , all with Warner Bros. through its Bad Robot banner.

Reeves ( Cloverfield, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes ) is immersing himself in the world of Gotham's hooded vigilante as a writer, director and producer for Warner Bros. ' next reboot of the feature film by The Batman, now in post-production. Its sixth and Idaho prodco, co-founded with EVP Adam Kassam and development director Rafi Crohn, has a general deal with Warner Bros. Television.