How BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Influenced the BATMAN BEYOND Animated Series

When Warner Bros. first pitched the idea of a new Batman series that focused on a young Bruce Wayne, Bruce Timm wasn’t really into the idea at first. It took some convincing and an evolution of ideas that would eventually lead to the development of Batman Beyond.

The series ended up being pretty awesome and it wasn’t based on any existing comic. It was an original take on Batman and the future he lives in, 2039. In the series, he’s old and retired, but he’s also training a teenager named Terry McGinnis to be the new Dark Knight. 

The show was initially pitched as a series revolving around a young Bruce Wayne, but Timm and his team came up with something that was so much better! One of the influences of the series was actually Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which I thought was interesting.

In a previous interview with IGN, Batman Beyond producer Glen Murakami discussed the influence of Buffy saying:

“I think Bruce wasn't sure about the idea until he pitched it to me. I don't know if this was toy line related or what, but I think Buffy [Buffy the Vampire Slayer was airing on the WB network at the time] was doing really well for them so I think that also had some influence. They wanted a version of Batman similar to Buffy. I remember Bruce coming back from the meeting and telling me they wanted several different options. One was Bruce as a teenager before he becomes Batman, almost like Speed Racer driving around in a car helping people. But it's before he's Batman and before he has a Batmobile. That was one idea and I think there was maybe another idea almost like maybe Batman throughout time, different kind [of] versions of Batman.

“The reason why I was interested in it is because I felt like people were typecasting us. We did BTAS and it was like, oh, ‘Dark Deco,’ film noir. Okay, you guys know how to do that. And then we were doing Superman and it's like, well, even Superman was kind of old-fashioned. I'm like, let's do Batman Beyond to show people we can do something more modern.”

What they ended up developing for the series was the perfect route. It was much more interesting than just a young Bruce Wayne, and the future setting was super slick and cool! It was definitely outside of the box and that’s one of the things that I loved about it. Terry McGinnis was also an interesting and compelling character.

It’s interesting to learn how a desire for a teen Batman series inspired by Buffy led to the Batman Beyond that we got.