Ethan Hawke Has Quietly Been Voicing Batman In A DC Series Most Fans Haven't Heard Of

Every comic book movie fan has their favorite Batman. For 1990s kids, Michael Keaton will always be the quintessential Dark Knight, while the generation directly after will always look to Christian Bale as the definitive on-screen Caped Crusader. Kids growing up today, however, might well look back on their childhood with a fondness for Ethan Hawke's version of the superhero — and they might not even know it. That's because the actor — who's returning as the Grabber in "Black Phone 2" this month – has quietly been voicing the character on the animated kids series "Batwheels" for the last three years.

Hawke, who is still at the top of his game after 40 years in the industry, began voicing Batman in September 2022 when "Batwheels" debuted on HBO Max ahead of its arrival as part of Cartoon Network's "Cartoonito" programming block a month later. The show has since returned for a second season alongside several shorts and follows the adventures of Batman's various vehicles, all of whom have become sentient thanks to the Bat-computer. (Hey, it's a kids show.) The main character of the show is actually Bam the Batmobile, who's voiced by actor Jacob Bertrand, best known for portraying Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz in "Cobra Kai." But as you might expect, Batman shows up throughout the series to guide his talking vehicles on their mission to defeat Gotham's various rogues, with Hawke voicing the character in 20 of the show's 74 episodes.

The actor has been on somewhat of a tear recently, playing Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater's "Blue Moon," which has thus far received stellar reviews, and starring in FX's "The Lowdown," alongside appearing in "The Black Phone 2" (which Stephen King has given his seal of approval to). "Batwheels," however, remains one of his lesser-known recent projects, but it's significant not only because, well, it's Batman, but because Hawke previously turned down the offer to star as the live-action Dark Knight.

Season 3 of "Batwheels" is set to premiere in 2025 and will see Ethan Hawke return as the animated Batman. Interestingly enough, Hawke was on the shortlist to portray Batman back in the '90s. In fact, he was reportedly Joel Schumacher's top choice to take on the role in 1995's "Batman Forever" after Michael Keaton walked away from Batman altogether. As the actor once revealed in a Details Magazine Q&A, he turned down the offer to star in Schumacher's neon-drenched excursion into Gotham due to the fact he "didn't want to go to the Knicks game and have everybody go, 'Wow, you were a great Batman!'" As Hawke put it, "That wasn't my f*****g goal in life." But it seems the actor always regretted his decision, going on to say that he should have taken the offer: "Now I wish I'd done it. Because I could have used it to do other things."

Frankly, it sounds as if Hawke wasn't necessarily the right choice for the role at that time, since he would, by his own admission, only have used Batman as a springboard for other projects. Now, the actor has finally found his ideal portrayal of the Dark Knight at the time he was supposed to find it. The actor does a fine job in the role, evoking the spirit of the late great Kevin Conroy, whose performance in "Batman: The Animated Series" and various other Bat-related media remains definitive for large swathes of the fandom. Hawke somehow manages to wring even more grit and gravel out of the voice, though, while also effectively delivering the kid-friendly humor required. As co-executive producer Michael G. Stern told Animation Scoop, "What Ethan brought was this sort of exhausted dad energy. He's got these young people to take care of — Batgirl and Robin. And he's sort of the father figure to the Batwheels even though they can't talk directly to each other. He's always sort of got that grumble going on that Ethan invented."

"Batwheels" is streaming on HBO Max.