Article by Chris Foti
Terry McGinnis is a fan favorite character, and is many people’s favorite person to wear the cape and cowl not named Bruce Wayne. However, while Batman Beyond is beloved by many fans today, it was a very different story behind the scenes. A new documentary explores the lack of passion and enthusiasm for the show titled The Classic Nobody Wanted.
The documentary details the production history that led to Batman Beyond’s creation and includes commentary from the cast and crew, including Kevin Conroy (Bruce Wayne) and Will Friedle (Terry McGinnis).
Around the time of the show’s creation, Dawson’s Creek was one of the most popular shows on the network. So The New Batman Adventures was prematurely canceled to target a similar high school audience. According to series producer Glen Murakami,
They wanted a version of Batman similar to Buffy.
The full documentary can be viewed below:
A Teenage Batman
Instead of making a show with a teenage Bruce Wayne, Bruce Timm and Glen Murakami compromised using a new teenage protagonist. They named the teenager Terry McGinnis and aged up Bruce Wayne. This way, they could keep the established continuity from Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. However, the producers weren’t even “sold on their own pitch.”
When Batman Beyond was released on Blu-ray last year, it was alluded that this was the case when it was revealed in a roundtable that the series started with “a terrible idea.”
Alas, despite no real excitement or passion on the project, the show had 3 successful seasons. It even spawned one of the most beloved animated movies, Return of the Joker, and, much like Harley Quinn before him, Terry McGinnis has since been made a part of DC Comics canon.
Were you a Batman Beyond fan? I always loved this series, so it’s interesting to see that not even the creators of the show were into the idea of it.
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