Draft:Batman Beyond (film)

Batman Beyond is an upcoming American superhero film written by Daniel Casey and produced by DC Studios, based on the animated series of the same name, itself based on the comic book character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

Previous attempts to adapt Batman Beyond as a feature film were done by Warner Bros. Pictures during the early 2000s following the critical and commercial failure of Batman & Robin (1997), with Boaz Yakin attached as director and co-writer alongside co-creators Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, but the project was ultimately scrapped. Two other Batman Beyond films were comissionned years later by former DC Films head Walter Hamada, one being a live-action feature set within the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), with Christina Hodson writing and Michael Keaton returning as Bruce Wayne, and another being an animated film written by Casey. While the live-action film was cancelled after James Gunn and Peter Safran were named heads of DC Studios as part of a reboot of the DCEU, the animated film continued development.

Background
After the critical and commercial failure of Batman & Robin (1997), Warner Bros. Pictures began considering multiple options for a reboot for the Batman film series, one of these being a live-action film based on the DC Animated Universe series Batman Beyond (1999-2001). In 1999, Warner Bros. licensced multiple domain names under the Batman Beyond: The Movie, reportedly unrelated to the direct-to-video film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000). Boaz Yakin was set to direct the film, as well as to co-write it alongside series co-creators Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, while science fiction novelist Neal Stephenson was hired as a consultant. Yakin wanted to cast Clint Eastwood as an eldery Bruce Wayne. The writers developed an early draft for the film, which was set to be "hard-edged" and nihilistic strong in violence and swearing in the vein of Blade Runner (1982), which was against the studio's plans for a PG-13 rated film. Warner lost interest in the project and put it on hold by September 2001, and finished development on the project in favor of an ultimatelly cancelled Batman: Year One feature film''. ''

In August 2019, Dini revealed that interested in Warner for a Batman Beyond film has remained, but the studio put plans on hold in favor of other projects. In June 2020, it was reported that Michael Keaton was set to reprise his role as Batman in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), starting with The Flash (2023), and set to appear in multiple films in a mentor-esque role akin to Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Keaton was officially hired to return that August. During that time, The Flash and Birds of Prey (2020) writer Christina Hodson was hired to write a Batman Beyond film, with Keaton set to reprise his role and featuring Terry McGinnis / Batman and Selina Kyle / Catwoman, as well as plans for Michelle Pfeiffer to reprise her role from Batman Returns (1992). The film was set to continue plot threads first established in The Flash. After James Gunn and Peter Safran were hired as heads for DC Studios, the live-action film was scrapped alongside most DCEU feature films in pre-production in favor of a reboot of the DCEU in the form of the DC Universe (DCU).

Development
Alongside Hodson's live-action film, an animated Batman Beyond feature film was commissioned by former DC Films head Walter Hamada in response to the success of Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), with Daniel Casey serving as the writer of the script. In March 2023, reporter Jeff Sneider revealed the film's existence while also mentioning that it is currently unknown whether development on the film will move forward under Gunn and Safran's regime, but noted that none of the people involved with the film has been informed it was cancelled.