Kevin Conroy Reveals The Real Reason They Stopped Making ‘Batman: The Animated Series’

Kevin Conroy, who has voiced Bruce Wayne-slash-Batman across several iterations for 26 years, said the DC animated universe — or the Timmverse — dried up because the creators “ran out of ideas for stories.”

Appearing at MCM Comic Con London on May 26, Conroy was asked if he’d consider reprising the role in a reboot of Batman: The Animated Series, saying, “Oh gosh, yeah, I’d love to.”

“They didn’t stop making the shows because the audience wasn’t there or the actors weren’t there, they stopped, really, because the creators ran out of ideas for stories. And they didn’t want to compromise on the quality of what they had and start creating kind of silly stories,” Conroy explained.

“So they go, ‘Look, we gotta go in a whole new different direction.’ So then they went to Batman and Robin, they brought in Robin, that was the next series. Then they went into Batman Beyond, you know, recruiting a young guy. And then it was the Justice League. They were always looking at different ways to re-imagine the characters, just so they can get new storylines. A lot of it had to do with trying to come up with stories that weren’t becoming ridiculous.”

“But all the actors would love to have done more of them,” Conroy added. “You could get all those actors back today, in a booth, to do more animated series shows because everyone loved it that much.”

Batman: The Animated Series launched in 1992, running through 1995. It was later re-introduced as The New Batman Adventures, bringing in young sidekick crime-fighters Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl.

Futuristic sequel Batman Beyond launched in early 1999, which saw Conroy’s older, grizzled Batman pass the torch to 16-year-old Terry McGinnis. Conroy’s Batman would be back in action twice more in 2001 animated series Justice League and its sequel, 2004’s Justice League Unlimited.

In addition to both theatrical and straight-to-video feature-length films, Conroy has also voiced the Dark Knight in the popular Arkham video game series — influenced by the Timmverse — and has since voiced the character in animated movie Batman and Harley Quinn and the ongoing kid-friendly Justice League Action.

Conroy has since taken part in the campaign to convince Warner Bros. to fund an animated Justice League reunion that would re-team Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman), George Newborn (Superman), Phil LaMarr (Green Lantern), Michael Rosenbaum (Flash), Carl Lumbly (Martian Manhunter) and Maria Canals (Hakwgirl).