Because Batman is a DC Comics superhero, and thus a Warner Bros. Discovery property, you can easily stream the majority of the best Batman movies and TV shows with an HBO Max subscription. However, there are now some notable exceptions, including last year’s announcement that Batman: Caped Crusader would no longer be released on that streaming platform. Instead, Caped Crusader will be an Amazon offering, and now the service is keeping its Batman streak going in a fun way with two more animated projects.
Along with Amazon officially confirming the two-season order for Batman: Caped Crusader, the company announced that it’s acquired an animated movie called Merry Little Batman, as well as its spinoff series, Bat-Family. Just like with Caped Crusader, these projects hail from Warner Bros. Animation, but if you’re interested in checking them out, you’ll need to be part of the ranks of Amazon Prime Video subscribers. Here’s what Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon and MGM Studios, had to say about these Dark Knight-centric additions to the streaming service’s library (via THR):
Batman: The Animated Series helped pioneer in the evolution of superhero storytelling and defined the Dark Knight for a generation. Batman: Caped Crusader will no doubt continue that tradition and, alongside Merry Little Batman and Bat-Family, we’re thrilled to collaborate with Warner Bros. Animation to offer a variety of takes of the Batman mythos to our global Prime Video customers.
Merry Little Batman focuses on Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s biological son, transforming into “Little Batman” so that he can “defend his home and Gotham from the villains who want to destroy the holidays.” Along with directing the movie off a script written by Teen Titans Go!’s Morgan Evans, Regular Show’s Mike Roth executive produced it with Warner Bros. Animation head Sam Register. Then in Bat-Family, we’ll see Damian, Bruce and Alfred Pennyworth hang out with some newcomers to Wayne Manor and watch them “navigate the fun and frustrations of life as a super family.” Roth and Register executive produce the series alongside Jase Ricci, who wrote the recently-released Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham.
This is just the latest in a string of animated appearances Damian Wayne had made since being introduced to the DC Comics canon, with others including Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Harley Quinn and several entries in the DC Animated Movie Universe timeline. The reveal of Merry Little Batman and Bat-Family also comes a few months after it was announced that the upcoming DC movie The Brave and the Bold will feature Damian as its Robin, which sounds exciting. With these new animated projects being on the lighthearted and comical side, that should make for a nice contrast with Batman: Caped Crusader, which, as noted above, with be a spiritual successor to Batman: The Animated Series tonally.
For now, there’s no word on when any of these three animated Batman projects will hit Amazon. In the meantime though, there’s plenty of original animated content you can find there now, including Invincible, The Legend of Vox Machina and The Boys Presents: Diabolical.
