Next week, Kevin Conroy will finally — after more than 25 years as the definitive voice of Batman — make his live-action debut in The CW‘s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” events. Playing an older Bruce Wayne, who wears a full-body exoskeleton, Conroy’s Batman will have what appears to be a pretty tense conversation with his cousin Kate Kane (although it seems likely that Conroy’s Bruce is either from the future or from another Earth — maybe both. Either way, when we spoke with him earlier today about his role in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Conroy said that he would love to spend some more time in the live-action Batcave, although he doesn’t know of any specific plans to make it happen.
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Earlier today, we speculated that a post-“Crisis” merging of multiple earths might give fans a chance to see more of Conroy’s Batman as the Batman of a combined Earth. And if that were to happen? Conroy is down for it.
“Wouldn’t that be awesome? That would be so awesome,” Conroy said, enthusiastically. “I was thinking that as I was doing this, that I’m kind of inhabiting Old Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond. He’s not that old — Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond is like 80. He’s not that old in this but he is as limited in his ability to be physical in this. He’s not fully able-bodied. In that sense he’s like Old Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond. And I was using the voice, actually, from Old Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond. I was thinking, it would be great to do that. I would love it.”
He admitted that it would be difficult to bring Terry McGinnis in, since Will Friedle is a little too old to be playing the character in live-action now, but he noted that if there was ever a chance, he would jump at doing an animated reunion.
For now, though, we have something really special: the live-action debut of Conroy’s Dark Knight in the biggest event DC has ever put together in live action.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” has loomed over the Arrowverse for years. The series premiere of The Flash featured an allusion to the hero disappearing amid red skies in the year 2024. During the original comics event, red skies were a sign of doom to come to a world during the Crisis. At the end of last season, a couple of things happened: The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), who had appeared in “Elseworlds,” reappeared and revealed that Oliver Queen was destined to die in the Crisis…and the future newspaper at STAR Labs rolled back the expected date of the Crisis from 2024 to 2019.
In the comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths centered on a battle between the combined superheroes (and even some villains) of the DC multiverse and an immortal, cosmic threat known as the Anti-Monitor. Like The Monitor, the Anti-Monitor will be played by LaMonica Garrett in the Arrowverse. As the Anti-Monitor destroys realities, he replaces their positive matter energy with antimatter, growing his own power and sphere of influence. He was eventually stopped by the sacrifices of several heroes, including The Flash and Supergirl, as well as the merging of multiple universes to save reality by becoming a single, unified timeline. Fans have long wondered whether the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” might bring Supergirl and even Black Lightning to Earth-1, where the rest of the series take place. The crossover will also feature guest appearances by Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Erica Durance as Lois Lane, John Wesley Shipp as the Flash of Earth-90, Johnathon Schaech as Jonah Hex, Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne, and Ashley Scott as The Huntress.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday’s episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a “special episode” of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which launches as a midseason series this year and so will not have an episode on the air before the Crisis.
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Image courtesy of the CW Network.
