New Batman Movie Based on One of the Best DC Stories Ever Officially Announced

Batman fans may be living in their best era yet. Not only is the character the lead of some major new comic book stories that continue to dominate the sales charts, but he’s alive in other media, too. Matt Reeves’ The Batman film franchise still has a sequel on the way, and just got even bigger with The Penguin HBO TV series. In addition, there are two animated shows starring the character on Prime Video, and now Warner Bros. and DC have just announced two more Batman feature films are on the way. Not only that, they’re going to adapt one of the Dark Knight’s best storylines.

Straight from New York Comic Con today, the Warner Bros. Animation panel concluded with the official announcement that a new multi-part animated event is happening with new Batman: Knightfall movies officially happening. The first of these two movies is currently in production and is set to be released next year, and is directed by Jeff Wamester and written by Jeremy Adams. This new announcement marks the latest Batman news for DC fans and is something that many have waited decades for.

Batman: Knightfall Remains One of DC’s Most Influential Stories

Currently in production, Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall will be coming in 2026 and is, of course, based on the DC Comics event of the same name. That year-long storyline had a murderer’s row of creators involved, including Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, Dennis O’Neil, Peter David, Jo Duffy, Jim Aparo, Graham Nolan, Norm Breyfogle, and Jim Balent, but also introduced two key elements of Batman lore to the world: Bane and Azrael.

As many fans may know, the Knightfall storyline largely began with Bane making his presence known in Gotham, aiming to prove that he was better than Batman by breaking him physically and mentally. He carried out this plan in part by letting all of the villains out of Arkham, forcing Batman to recapture them all, and putting him in a place where he was susceptible to attack. At that point, Bane did his most famous party trick and defeated Batman by breaking his back. One could guess that the upcoming animated movie will follow that same narrative track, concluding with that element ahead of the second part of the story.

That’s not the end of the Knightfall plot, though. While Batman was recovering from his injury, a replacement Dark Knight had to make their way into Gotham. The second part, dubbed Knightsquest, saw Jean-Paul Valley take on the role of Batman using a brand new suit that combined the Batman aesthetics with that of his other identity, Azrael. As one could guess, Azrael’s run as Batman is quite different, more violent, and leads to some villains paying a visit to the Gotham City morgue. The third part of the story, KnightsEnd, is a culminating event of the entire thing, as Bruce must reckon with the man he made his replacement, taking his mission to extremes that he would never allow.

It’s unconfirmed how many parts the new Knightfall animated movies will have, but if it were three, it would fully follow the narrative to a T and give DC fans something they’ve always wanted. To date, only pieces of the Knightfall storyline have been adapted in live-action, with Christopher Nolan famously using elements of Bane’s story in The Dark Knight Rises. Even then, that side of the story is only one piece of Knightfall, with fan-favorite elements like Azrael never even appearing in live-action feature films at all.

With these new animated movies, Warner Bros. Animation and DC are continuing a major trend for fans, which is their expanded animated universe. Previously, they’ve adapted other major Batman stories for animated movies, including Batman: Year One and a two-part Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Others that have been made previously include The Killing Joke, Under the Red Hood, Hush, and The Long Halloween.

One piece of news that could seemingly be gleaned from this announcement is that if the ability to make a Knightfall animated movie is being given to the animation division at Warner Bros., it stands to reason that the larger DCU likely has no plans to incorporate it. Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II is already set to involve a villain “not really” done in any other movie, which rules out Bane, while The Brave and the Bold movie has been confirmed to be a Bat-family movie with Damian Wayne. Plans do always change, of course, but fans getting Knightfall in animation is better than nothing, especially since it seems like it won’t be in live-action any time soon.

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