Kevin Conroy revealed that he is, in fact, voicing Batman in the next Arkham game. Click the jump see more.
Looks like some folks have got some ‘splainin to do, including myself. A couple weeks ago, news broke from NAG Magazine that WB Montreal was going in a different direction for Batman, meaning that with their new title, Arkham Origins, on the horizon, they wanted a younger Batman and therefore replacing the revered Kevin Conroy as the voice of the Bats. As a huge fan of Kevin Conroy, I was pretty disappointed.
Well, the big news today is that Kevin Conroy himself, while doing a panel at Dallas Comic-Con this weekend, confirmed his involvement in the next Arkham game (now that he’s allowed to talk about it), saying “we’ve been working for the last 9-10 months on the next Arkham.”
Now, I’m incredibly relieved to hear this, don’t get me wrong, but let’s analyze this statement a bit. Notice how he never actually name-checks Arkham Origins, but simply calling it the “next Arkham.” There has been speculation that RockSteady has been working on the true successor in the Arkham franchise, while WB Montreal is working on a new Arkham franchise spin-off. If this is to believed, then it’ll coincide with NAG Magazine‘s scoop on WB Montreal leaning towards a younger Batman as well as the Facebook name change that occurred a couple months back. The Facebook fanpage may be momentarily promoting Arkham Origins, but I find it suspect that they’re still using the umbrella name of “Batman: Arkham” instead of simply changing it to “Batman: Arkham Origins.” With all that in mind, could it possibly be that we might be getting two Arkham games? One by RockSteady and one by WB Montreal? The more Batman, the merrier, right? I can dream and I can dream big. And oh, what a wonderful dream it is.
But then again, I might be reading into a non-existent ruse. Taking his statements at face value, the timing of this confirmation is aligned properly with the timeline of Arkham Origins, with him having been working on the game over the past 10 months as well as the non-disclosure agreement allowing him to talk about the game. Let me state the obvious to make sure that everything is properly elucidated. If he’s allowed to talk about the game, that must mean the game has been announced and is in fact public knowledge, and as far as I know, the only announced Arkham game is Arkham Origins. Soo… maybe Conroy simply didn’t remember the name of the game.
All that aside, I’m very happy with DC’s choice to stay true to Batman and going back to Kevin Conroy.
You can view the panel in its entirety below:
The panel is being moderated by Dr. Travis Langley, author of Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight.
How do you feel about this news? Are you happy that Kevin Conroy is back? Let me know.
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Source – YouTube (via Arkhamverse)