So Robert Pattinson is the new Batman in The Batman. Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton, who’ve previously played Batman, are playing Batman again in The Flash. And now, if there weren’t enough Bat-actors fluttering about, a new one is playing Batman in a rather unique way. It’s Sinister and Purge star Ethan Hawke and he’s got some very wonderful toys.
Hawke will voice the Caped Crusader in an upcoming Warner Bros. animated series called Batwheels. And, as the title suggests, it’s very different from everything else Batman out there. This is a show aimed at preschool kids, set in a world where Batman, Robin, and Batgirl exist, but there’s also a group called the Batwheels, sentient vehicles who also fight crime. Here’s an image.
While Hawke is voicing Batman, AJ Hudson (The Good Place) is Robin/Duke Thomas, marking the first on-screen portrayal of DC’s first Black Robin, and Leah Lewis (Nancy Drew) is Batgirl/Casandra Cain. As for the Batwheels, there’s the leader Bam (the Batmobile, voiced by Cobra Kai’s Jacob Bertrand), Bibi (the Batgirl Cycle, voiced by Madigan Kacmar), Redbird (Robin’s Sports Car, voiced by Jordan Reed), the Batwing (voiced by Lilimar), and Buff (the Bat Truck, voiced by Noah Bentley). In the world of the show they’ve been created by the Bat Computer (voiced by Kimberly D. Brooks) with repair help from Moe (voiced by Mick Wingert).
So, basically, Batman’s Batcomputer creates these sentient crime fighting cars, but because they’re born basically out of nowhere, they’ve got the minds of kids, so they have to figure out about life while fighting crime, independently of their mentors Batman, Robin, and Batgirl.
Honestly, while that seems a little confusing for a kids show, odds are it’s just going to be a lot of fun, goofy action with these DC and DC-inspired characters. No word on when the show will debut or where (since it’s part of the “Cartoonito” preschool programming block from WarnerMedia Kids & Family, it’ll be either/or HBO Max or Cartoon Network), but we’ll send up a car-shaped Batsignal when we know.