In early 1999, Warner Bros. was angling for extra “Batman” content material. Whereas the characteristic movie sequence had been dropped at an finish by the bitter response to Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin” in 1997, the Caped Crusader continued to thrive on tv for a number of extra years. Warner Bros. requested for a present from Bruce Timm’s staff, however one that may, maybe, be geared towards a youthful viewers than the comparatively mature “Animated Collection.” Timm, together with frequent producing collaborators/co-creators Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, rapidly threw collectively a couple of concepts, ultimately selecting what would grow to be “Batman Past.”
Timm admitted it was a hasty determination. He stated:
“In desperation, we got here up with the idea for ‘Batman Past,’ which we thought was the one factor we may do that may reinvent the character with out wrecking the continuity we had executed. […] There was the chance to do extra of a science-fictional Gotham Metropolis, and the extra we talked about it the extra we appreciated it.”
Regardless of the preliminary mandate to maintain the present mild, “Past” was simply as grim as its predecessor. Within the sequence, a lot of Batman’s previous allies had retired or died, he had resigned from the Justice League, and characters like Batgirl and Nightwing stopped speaking to him as a result of they’d a falling out. Outdated and alone and cloaked in resentment, Bruce Wayne needed to prepare the hotshot Terry McGinnis to be the brand new Batman. It appeared that a long time of crimefighting have executed nothing to stem the fixed rise of crime within the metropolis, even after Gotham went cyberpunk.
“Batman Past” was massively profitable, lasted for 3 seasons, and spawned a straight-to-video characteristic movie, “Batman Past: Return of the Joker” in 2000. Even when it was a last-minute determination, it was a great one.