Speaking exclusively with MovieWeb, directorMike Rothteases details regarding his upcoming animated series,Bat-Family, the follow-up to this festive season’sMerry Little Batman. Long beforeMerry Little Batmanhit Prime Video and became one of the most inventive animated holiday streaming films in recent years, its sequel series was already planned, with Roth beaming with delight as he reveals it will be “the same core characters” while expanding the world.
“We’re working on a 22-minute action-comedy adventure called Bat-Family. It’s all the same core characters that we’ve seen from this movie, but we’re expanding out the world — new villains, new places to go. We’re also expanding out the house [Wayne Manor], so there’s going to be more family members coming into the house, which is also very exciting for us.”
Merry Little Batmandepicts The Dark Knight like never before, with an animation style that falls somewhere between the late noughties Cartoon Network and the Roald Dahl artwork by Sir Quentin Saxby Blake. And Roth cannot wait to bring more of theBatmanfamily into this newly established style.
“I just want to see as much of the Batman universe with this design filter as possible. Going into the new series, we’re starting to explore that territory, and it’s really fun.”
Following the events ofMerry Little Batman,Bat-Familyfollows Batman, Alfred, and young Damian Wayne, who has now taken on the mantle of Little Batman, alongside a few newcomers to Wayne Manor, as they navigate the fun and frustrations of life as a super family.
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Merry Little Batman
Merry Little Batmanfollows Damian Wayne, who wants to be a Super Hero like his dad, the one and only Batman. When Damian is left home alone while Batman takes on Gotham’s worst Super-Villains on Christmas Eve, he stumbles upon a villainous plot to steal Christmas and leaps at the chance to save the day.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and based on characters from DC,Merry Little Batmanfeatures the voices of Yonas Kibreab, Luke Wilson, James Cromwell, and David Hornsby, and is directed by Mike Roth (Regular Show) from a screenplay by Morgan Evans (Teen Titans Go!) and Jase Ricci (Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham).
Merry Little Batmanshines adifferent light on DC icon Bruce Wayne, with Roth wanting to show the comic book character as a father “in full dad mode.”
“There are so many different types of Batman projects. They’re all a similar ilk. We wanted to see Batman in a slightly different lens, right? So instead of seeing that brooding presence of Batman, where he’s just always Batman-ing, and he’s like depressed, or what have you, it was like, what if he’s a dad? What if he’s in full dad mode? He has a beard, he has flannel, he has sneakers. Instead of a tuxedo. And what does that world look like for him? What would his son look like? It’s something different that you don’t normally see while still being tethered to the 90-year history that we all expect of Batman.”
Merry Little Batmanis now available to stream on Prime Video. Check out the trailer below:
