With DC Studios setting out to create a single shared DCU (with a handful of "Elseworlds" projects like The Batman franchise), it's unclear what that means for Warner Bros. Animation's direct-to-DVD DC offerings.
2024 has seen the release of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen, though July's San Diego Comic-Con didn't bring the usual annual announcements about what's next. As a result, most fans expect these movies to be quietly scrapped.
Now, though, it appears there either are - or were - plans for an animated trilogy based on Batman: Knightfall.
Based on recent filings on the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR) system, which "provides a unique identifier for audiovisual content across the global entertainment industry," DC Animated Universe veteran Jeff Wamester (who helmed the Crisis on Infinite Earths trilogy) will helm this adaptation of the iconic storyline.
He's been a huge part of the Tomorrowverse which essentially ended with Crisis so it's unclear how this would fit into the reboot that trilogy concluded with.
The EIDR lists this movie as Batman: Knightfall: Part 1 and has what appears to be a placeholder runtime of one hour. The listed release date is 2024, though we'd imagine that's another temporary addition to this filing.
The comic book version of this story was broken into three parts: Knightfall, Knightquest, and Knightsend.
We don't know how profitable these animated movies are for Warner Bros. but we'd imagine they must do well considering the fact we typically get anywhere from 2 - 4 of them every year. Batman also remains a big draw and this storyline would fit nicely into the "Elseworlds" category.
While the Knightfall story is remembered best for the moment Bane broke the Bat, Jean-Paul Valley, a.k.a. Azrael, stepped up to take over the mantle of Batan and was even responsible for Bane's eventual defeat.
However, Azrael's brutal methods were a step too far for the Dark Knight and, alongside Robin and Nightwing, he'd eventually take the cape and cowl back.
Earlier this year, we asked Tomorrowverse executive producer and DC veteran Butch Lukic about where things stand with these animated movies.
"You never know. Right now, I couldn't say anything as far as what they want to do beyond these," he told us. "Obviously, the James Gunn DC Universe is what's important right now; as far as anything to jump off of this stuff, I think it's very secondary so it's going to be more aligned to whatever the DCU is as James Gunn works it out."
As always, keep checking back here for updates because this might just be another Warner Bros. Discovery tax write-off.