After almost thirty years of voicing the character through numerous animated and video game incarnations, Kevin Conroy finally got to portray Batman (or rather his alter-ego Bruce Wayne) in live-action form as part of last year’s CW crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths.
However, while Conroy’s Batman is frequently cited by many fans as the definitive version of the Dark Knight, his version of Bruce Wayne in Crisis certainly wasn’t so well received; understandably so, perhaps, when he was portrayed as a paranoid, ruthless serial killer who’d taken out the likes of The Joker, The Riddler, and even Superman.
Speaking on the Inside Of You With Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Conroy has reflected on his appearance, and the backlash from fans against the controversial depiction:
“The fans were not happy about that. They didn’t like seeing that version of Bruce Wayne,” said Conroy. “But for me it was fun, it was a lot of fun to sort of stretch my acting chops a little bit. They didn’t tell me anything about the Batman. They just said he was the Batman in the future, an old Bruce Wayne. I said, ‘You mean like in Batman Beyond old Bruce Wayne?’ They said, ‘No, he’s not 80. But he’s older and he’s in bad shape.’”
“They’re so guarded with their scripts, the studios, they don’t give them out,” he continued. “So they didn’t give me anything. I got the script basically when I was about to get on a plane to fly to Vancouver to do the show, I hadn’t seen anything. I said yes because I was so excited to do something on camera again [after] 25 years. I was in this suit of armor that was an external spine because his back had been broken by Superman. And I didn’t know that was going to happen. So it was full of surprises. I didn’t know I was going to try and kill Supergirl. He was dark. He was dark.”
What did you make of Conroy’s Crisis on Infinite Earths appearance? Were you disappointed by the way the producers depicted Bruce Wayne? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
