During a podcast interview, Kevin Conroy spoke out about fans' reactions to his appearance inBatwomanas an elderly, murderous Bruce Wayne. While he’s well aware that a lot of viewers didn’t like seeinga dark alternate Batman, Conroy is now on record as saying he had a lot of fun with the role.
Conroy is best known as the voice of Batman in the landmark showBatman: The Animated Series. For many fans, he simplyisBatman. Conroy’s opportunity to take the role out of the recording booth and onto the set came inBatwoman’s midseason finale in December, which was also the second part of theCrisis on Infinite Earthsmega-crossover that condensed many of the “Arrowverse” TV shows into a single universe. InBatwoman, Conroy plays a Bruce Wayne who’s from both a dark futureandan alternate timeline, where he broke his vow to never take a life, and was subsequently crippled in a fight wherehe killed his Earth’s Superman.
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“The fans were not happy about that. They didn’t like seeing that version of Bruce Wayne,” Conroy said on a recent episode of Michael Rosenbaum’s podcastInside of You. “But for me… it was a lot of fun to stretch my acting chops a little bit.” Rosenbaum, of course, has a long DC Universe history of his own,having played Lex LuthoronSmallvillefor its first seven seasons; this episode of his podcast should really have been called “Lex vs. Batman” for the sake of the views.
Conroy wasn’t told anything other than the bare minimum about theBatwomanrole before he accepted it, only knowing that he would play an older Bruce Wayne, due to the showrunners' secrecy. “I got the script basically when I was about to get on a plane to fly to Vancouver to do the show,” Conroy said. “I hadn’t seen anything… So it was full of surprises. I didn’t know I was going to try and kill Supergirl. He wasdark.”
Batwoman’s take on a fallen, nihilistic Batman draws heavily on seminal works from throughout the character’s history. Bruce’s exoskeleton resembles the one worn by an older Batman in Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s 1996Kingdom Comeminiseries, while his dialogue with Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane paraphrases similar lines from Frank Miller’s 1986 miniseriesThe Dark Knight Returns. Conroy’s Batman, officially designated the Batman of Earth-99 in series continuity, even has the Batmobile from the 1989 Tim Burton movieunder a tarp in his cave.
Batwomanis scheduled to return for a second season in January of 2021, with Javicia Leslie’s Ryan Wilder taking on the title character’s mantle following thedeparture of Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane.
