Trailer For DC's Animated Interactive Short Film Adaptation of BATMAN: DEATH IN THE FAMILY
The first trailer has dropped for DC’s upcoming animated adaption of the classic Batman comic book story, Batman: Death in the Family. Warner Bros. animation is giving fans something a little different this time around as this is going to be an interactive experience for the audience. Kind of like what Netflix did with Black Mirror.
Fans will be given the opportunity to decide how the story plays out for the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder with the multiple branching story paths to choose from. This is going to be a short film and it’s clearly an experimental thing that the WB is trying out.
Death in the Family chronicles the tragic death of second Robin, Jason Todd at the hand of the Joker. The film will act as a prequel to 2010's Batman: Under the Red Hood and will feature several returning voice actors, including Bruce Greenwood as Batman, Vincent Martella as Jason Todd, John DiMaggio as Joker, Zehra Fazal (Young Justice) as Talia al Ghul and Gary Cole (Veep) as both Two-Face and Commissioner Gordon.
The film is being produced, directed and written by Brandon Vietti, and the movie takes place in “a world where the infamous murder of Batman protégé Jason Todd will be undone, and the destinies of Batman, Robin and The Joker will play out in shocking new ways as viewers make multiple choices to control the story.”
With the numerous twists and turns in the story, there are also several possible endings. It will allow the viewers to decide whether Jason lives or dies and also determine the course of Jason's life. As you’ll see in the trailer, there will be some big deviations from comic, with Jason returning to Gotham as a bandaged assassin and taking up the mantle of Red Robin. But, whatever, I’m sure it will still be fun.
As for the interactive element, it’s safe to say that this is a callback to the original comic's infamous fan-voting campaign. If you don’t recall, DC Comics established a 1-900 number that fans could call in to and vote on whether they wanted Jason to live or die. Jason doing narrowly won.
You can check out the trailer below and let us know what you think!