The Dark Knight will head to Japan in Batman Ninja, a new animated film arriving next year. As one of DC’s most popular characters, it’s no surprise that iterations of Batman seem to pop up every few months. Since DC relaunched their animated movie universe, the Dark Knight has starred in or featured in every film they’ve released. Meanwhile, Bruce is looking more and more like the vigilante on Gotham with each passing week.
Batman also remains a fixture in the comics, where he most recently proposed to Catwoman in the main continuity. Outside of that, he and the Ninja Turtles keep teaming up and a one-shot saw him join forces with Elmer Fudd for a gritty detective story. Now, the Caped Crusader will be entering the world of anime.
At New York Comic Con yesterday, Warner Bros. Animation announced a new film called Batman Ninja that’s slated for release in 2018. The story will see Batman and Joker traveling through time and doing battle in locations like feudal Japan and medieval Europe. The first poster for the movie has been released, along with the creative team that will bring it to life.
The film will be directed by Jumpei Mizusaki (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) with an English screenplay by Eric Garcia and Leo Chu (Supa Ninjas) based on a script by Kazuki Nakashima (Kamen Rider Fourze). And most excitingly, Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai) will serve as the character designer.
io9 were on hand for the panel which featured footage from Batman Ninja. According to them, the Dark Knight will be decked out in the ensemble seen in the poster, while the Joker will wear a tattered courtier’s robe. Both, naturally, will be wielding katanas. They also noted that while the film is traditional 2D animation, some elements were augmented with CGI like Joker’s hair. All told, it seems to create a unique affect.
Joining the Clown Prince of Crime and Dark Knight will be Harley Quinn, Nightwing, a Robin, and Gorilla Grodd. The last choice is a particularly odd one, but the designs of each are said to be exquisite. There was also a scene of Harley battling enemies with a massive mallet with gleeful abandon.
In the meantime, another side universe animated movie will bring the comic Gotham By Gaslight to life sometime in the near feature. We’ve already seen a featurette for the movie, which will bring Bruce Wayne into a steampunk England as he hunts Jack the Ripper. All told, the next few years look to be big ones for Batman fans.
Batman Ninja will arrive sometime in 2018.
Sources: Warner Bros Animation and io9
