New information points to Warner Bros. Discovery developing an animated Batman trilogy.
The last slate of direct-to-DVD films based on DC superhero characters from Warner Bros. Animation, dubbed the Tomorrowverse, ended in 2024 with Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three. One of these films had adapted a truly iconic Batman story: The Long Halloween.
It was not the first and will not be the last Batman story to be adapted into animation or live-action. However, one of Batman’s most iconic stories, Batman: Knightfall, has yet to be adapted in full — until now.
A New Animated Batman Trilogy in Development?
According to recent filings on the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR) system, a new animated trilogy directed by Jeff Wamester based on Batman: Knightfall is in development.
The EIDR is an online system that records and tracks metadata for various audiovisual mediums, such as television, radio, and motion pictures, including DVDs.
Wamester previously directed nearly every Tomorrowverse film, with Justice Society: World War II and the three-part conclusion, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, being his most prominent work in that animated universe.
What implied this to be a trilogy is that the full title listed on EIDR is Batman: Knightfall: Part 1 and that the original comic book story itself was a saga comprised of three stories: Knightfall, Knightquest, and Knightsend.
Additionally, it has a release date listed on EIDR for 2024, with a run time of exactly one hour. However, both of these seem likely to be placeholders.
Unless Warner Bros. Discovery does not plan to market this animated movie and is going to drop it out of the blue, Batman: Knightfall: Part 1 will not be released before the end of 2024.
As for its length, every previous animated DC movie in the last three years has been at least 80 minutes long, and that is unlikely to change for this adaptation.
Considering how Batman: The Long Halloween was split into two parts for its animated adaptation, it’s no surprise that Warner Bros. Discovery would do the same for an equally popular story like Batman: Knightfall.
Of course, it helps that the comic book story was already split into a trilogy when it was originally released.
What Is the Batman: Knightfall Trilogy?
The most iconic moment from Batman: Knightfall is when Bane famously breaks Batman’s back. A moment that has been referenced, adapted, and parodied within pop culture for decades, most famously in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.
However, what is far less common knowledge and lost in the pop culture zeitgeist is the aftermath of Bane’s victory over Batman. It’s a common misconception that Bruce Wayne eventually recovered from his injury and defeated Bane. That did not actually happen; that honor belonged to someone else.
Much of the original Knightfall saga revolved around a new person taking over the mantle of Batman in his absence: Jean-Paul Valley, aka Azrael. A harsher anti-hero who Batman had met and befriended before his injury at the hands of Bane.
When Bruce Wayne could not perform his duties as Batman anymore, he gave the mantle to Azrael. He gladly accepted it, eventually defeating Bane in Bruce’s stead at the end of Knightfall. However, Jean-Paul quickly began to abuse his new position by harshly punishing criminals, more than Bruce ever did as Batman.
Eventually, the punishment eventually became too much for Bruce to stomach. Once he fully recovered, he took the Batman mantle from Jean-Paul by force with Robin and Nightwing’s help.
This is likely what Batman: Knightfall: Parts 2 and 3 will be about unless they plan to drastically change the original story, although it wouldn’t be the first time. For example, the animated adaptation of Batman: Hush was also drastically changed from the source material.
Batman: Knightfall: Part 1 is seemingly set to release in 2024, but it will more likely be released sometime in early 2025.
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