Long long ago HBO Max announced a Batman Christmas special aimed at kids called “Merry Little Batman.” It was to be an animated story with wacky character designs, about Bruce Wayne’s kid Damian having to adopt the mantle of the Dark Knight and save Christmas. After Zaslav shut down most of the family cartoons in development for the service, Amazon Prime picked the special up and paid to finish it. That’s where it wound up appearing…and apparently did well enough that it’s expanding into a full series.
Introducing Bat-Fam…a wild take on the Batman mythos with Luke Wilson and Yonas Kibreab returning as the voices of Bruce Wayne and Damian respectively. James Cromwell also returns as the heavily wrinkled and hunchbacked Alfred that appeared in the special. But this time they’re not alone!
In Bat-Fam we’ll also meet characters like Ra’s Al Ghul, who is now literally a ghoul after “a magical mishap” poofed him into a ghost. Since Ra’s is Damian’s grandfather, he floats around and tries to give Damian unsolicited advice while constantly ranting that he should be in charge of everything. Man-Bat is here, as a slacker who mooches off the luxuries of Wayne Manor and spends most of his time playing video games.
Volcana, who was first introduced in a Superman TAS episode back in 1998, shows up in a completely different form — literally, because she had an accident with a Lazarus Pit that turned her into a grumpy frizzy-haired 12-year-old girl. This is the kind of randomness that Bat-Fam rolls around in. Speaking of which: the last member of the main family is Alicia Pennyworth, Afred’s grand-niece, named and inspired deliberately from Alicia Silverstone in the reviled 1997 Batman and Robin movie.
Alicia does not voice her though. The other cast members are Haley Tju as Volcana, Michael Benyaer as Ra’s, Bobby Moynihan as Man-Bat and London Hughes a Alicia. Plus you never know who else might show up!
The first trailer for Bat-Fam is expected to appear next month at New York Comic-Con, during a panel featuring showrunner Mike Roth and members of the voice cast. The event will take place at the Javits Center in room 405 from 12:30-1:30 PM. If not then, the trailer could be released this coming Saturday, September 20, which is “Batman Day.”
Amazon Prime’s Bat-Fam will premiere this November.
