John Ridley Writing Batman Story Featuring Person of Color Under the Cowl

The rumors are true: acclaimed filmmaker John Ridley is joining the DC Universe to tell a very different Batman story for DC Comics. As revealed at DC FanDome during the Legacy of the Bat panel, Ridley was joined by producers and actors from Batwoman, Titans, the newly announced Gotham Knights video game, and other comic book figures to discuss the legacy of the Caped Crusader where Ridley confirmed that he is teaming up with Doom Patrol and Batman Universe artist Nick Derrington to create a new four-issue miniseries set to debut in 2021, which will exist alongside the current comic book run by James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez and NOT focus on Bruce Wayne.

Ridley also debuted a brand new piece of art from the artist Ladrönn that showcases his vision of the character. Take a look below:

“I think it’s a pretty safe bet that if I’m writing Batman, it’s probably a little better than a 47% chance he’s going to be a person of color,” said Ridley.

Ridley confirmed the story would focus on the family of Lucius Fox, who is the head of Wayne Enterprises.

“But he [Fox] has a family and this is a family that has secrets, has kept secrets from one another,” said Ridley. “It’s a little bit different dynamic than the Batman that we’ve always seen.”

While this will be the first time Ridley has written a series featuring Batman, he’s no stranger to comic book writing, nor to DC. In 2004, he wrote The Authority: Human on the Inside (with artist Ben Oliver) and contributed an arc to the 2005 series, The Razor’s Edge: Warblade (with legendary artist Simon Bisley). Most recently, Ridley also collaborated with artist Georges Jeanty on the groundbreaking limited series The American Way (2006) and its sequel, The American Way: Those Above and Those Below (2017).

Fans interested in learning more about Ridley’s plans for this series should check out the Batman: The Joker War panel at DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse, Saturday, September 12 at 10amPT/1pmET. Ridley is writing a short story (with art by Olivier Coipel) for the Batman: Joker War Zone one-shot anthology that may provide drop additional hints at his plans for the January miniseries.