Including Old Bruce Wayne In Batman Beyond Caused A Major Writing Problem
The Warner Bros. Animation series "Batman Beyond" (1999-2001) was brilliant. There is no other way to say it. Created by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett, it featured a much older Bruce Wayne (voiced by the late Kevin Conroy) who had to stop fighting crime as Batman after a heart attack forced him to break his own rule and threaten someone with a gun. Old man Bruce is grumpy and a little bitter, and while "Batman" is in the title, he wasn't actually the star of the series. That honor fell to Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle), a good-hearted teenager with a delinquent past. They meet up, and after the death of Terry's father, he takes on the mantle of Batman with the curmudgeonly help of Bruce.
Not having the Bruce Wayne version of Batman as the star of the show posed a problem, however, and it was with the freelance writers that were hired for the show, according to IGN's "Batman Beyond: The Classic Nobody Wanted" video. They weren't pitching Terry-centric stories, as Timm, director James Tucker, and writer Stan Berkowitz all explained.
' ... he's not the star of our show'
Timm said that all the pitches they received for storylines were focused on Bruce. "I love old man Bruce Wayne," Timm said. "I think he's fascinating and fun because he's ancient, and he's cranky, and he's more of a bastard than he ever was, but he's not the star of our show." He explained that stories had to be broken (the process in which writers come up with specific scenes for the episode) in-house. I love grumpy Bruce as well, but he felt like he worked better as seasoning for the main course than being the main course itself. Tucker mentioned that the focus was supposed to be Terry and that Bruce "is kind of just along for the ride."
Berkowitz, who came from DC animation, but had moved to live-action, came back for the second half of the two-part premiere, which aired in 1999. He had a take on Terry that helped make him into a separate character who wasn't just following in the footsteps of his grouchy mentor, despite their shared experience with losing family members.
'It would be impossible for me to imagine a character, a teenager that dark, that damaged'
Berkowitz said that he felt a character that young wasn't going to have the same level of damage that plagued Bruce Wayne. (I hesitate to become a meme by reminding you, yet again, what happened to Bruce's parents and why he ended up so dark in the first place.) Berkowitz explained:
"It would be impossible for me to imagine a character, a teenager that dark, that damaged. The whole point of doing the series was to do one – you know, have a hero who is younger and could appeal to younger people. Well, you make him someone who thinks he knows a lot and he's got the raw material. You know, like, 'No, you didn't know that much and you made a mistake here, you made a mistake there, but you're learning.'"
While plenty of young people related to Bruce Wayne, it was nice to have a foil for that in Terry. He had a brighter feel, and it served as a sharp contrast with grumpy Bruce. It also lightened the old grouch up, which was a lot of fun to see.
"Batman Beyond" is currently streaming on Max.