SMALLVILLE Actor Michael Rosenbaum Revealed He Auditioned For Batman in BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Animated Series
Smallville actor Michael Rosenbaum has voiced a few different DC characters over the years in animated projects such as Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond, Justice League: Doom, and Batman: Arkham Knight.
Well, the actor, who is best known for his role as Lex Luthor, revealed that he auditioned for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the upcoming animated series Batman: Caped Crusader. He talked about his experience and revealed that he didn’t get the role because he couldn’t quite nail the Bruce Wayne voice. He said on his Inside of You Podcast:
"We had another [audition], remember? The Batman series... It was JJ Abrams and Bruce Timm who created Justice League: Unlimited. It got just axed, but I remember going for a callback with him and everybody. And you know, I think my Batman was really good. I think they were really happy with Batman, but the Bruce Wayne, I don't think they were happy with. I could tell."
Batman: Caped Crusader is the spiritual successor of Batman: The Animated Series, it was initially developed for HBO Max by producers J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves and Bruce Timm. After Warner Bros. canceled the project, it landed at Amazon with a two-season order.
I’d be curious to hear what Rosenbaum’s take on Batman would’ve been! There’s no word on who has been cast in the role yet.
Timm previously talked about the show sharing that it is “more Batman: The Animated Series than Batman: The Animated Series." The show will capture what Timm was originally looking to do with the original animated series, saying, "It kind of goes back to the original principles of the show that we originally came up with in the early '90s. There were certain limitations on what we could do in terms of adult content; in terms of violence and adult themes." He went on to say, "My idea is basically to say, 'OK, it's 1990 again, I get to do what I want to do this time, and I got JJ and Matt backing me up."
Abrams said that Batman: Caped Crusader, "Really is an incredibly complex psychological story about someone who, in a way, needs to be redeemed – and that's kind of what at least this first season is about."
The series is being written by acclaimed comic book writer Ed Brubaker, who said: “Their vision for the show, with a slightly more pulpy take on the character, and a new way of looking at the world of Gotham, set in the past but viewed through a modern lens really sold me, and so far every part of it has been a blast to work on. I can’t wait until the rest of the world can see what we’ve been building the last few months in the writers room. All I can say is, it’s not what anyone is expecting … but in a good way.”
The show will focus on a version of Batman who is completely alone in his journey. Reeves explained, "There's not the Justice League. It doesn't exist. There aren't any other superheroes. It's Batman. You're watching this lone figure swimming through the cesspool of Gotham. It's Batman, alone."
It was also explained that Batman won’t have all of his gadgets as the show takes place before a time he started investing money in that stuff. "So he's going to be very low-tech, initially. You know, as he develops as a character, we'll start introducing those gadgets and the audience can see how he developed the Batmobile using different prototypes. That's part of the fun of this series is we're finding him discovering these things that, [in] most other Batman series, they already were there."