Kevin Conroy Says His Batman is The Same in Killing Joke and Justice League Action

To most viewers, they look at the next two instances of Batman in animation: the R-rated film Batman: The Killing Joke and the aimed-at-kids series Justice League Action as completely disparate properties. With sex, violence, and psychological torture all present in the first, and 11-minute action and comedy packed stories in the latter, it's a great example of how Batman can feature in stories of all types, content, and for all ages. But for Kevin Conroy, when asked at San Diego Comic-Con during an interview with Comicbook.com about if he plays the character differently in these, it was a surprising "no."

"I have to admit I don't, because the audience is so familiar with Batman, they're so devoted to him. Batman fans are so passionate," the veteran voice actor, celebrating his twenty-fifth year voicing Batman told us. "You have to be consistent; you have to be true to the character no matter what situation he's in. In The Killing Joke, it's such a dark, frightening place that he goes to, but it's the same character. In Justice League Action, it's that character, that same brooding, dark character, but in a more ridiculous situation. There's still a lot of action and adventures, but a little bit more of a ridiculous side to it. It opens itself up to a little bit of comedy, which I love playing and the audience at the screening really reacted well to. You approach the character the same way; the situation he's in is different."

The actor, who has now voiced the character for a quarter of a century across multiple animated series, movies, and video games, said it was a complete surprise to him he'd still be playing Batman all these years later. When they first got started on Batman: The Animated Series in 1991, he didn't even know if it would be successful.

"No clue in the world. We didn't even know if the show would be a hit when it first started," Conroy admitted. "It was the first show painted on black, it was a very dark, sort of film noir, aimed more towards an adult audience. There was a real question as to whether this would really fly. I had no idea."