Batman: The Animated Series Creator Bruce Timm’s New Gotham Cartoon Is Going to Get Weird

Batman: The Animated Series remains an important, influential superhero show, even nearly 30 years after its final episode, and the loss of iconic voice actor Kevin Conroy. But Batman the character lives forever, and he’ll be launching into new adventures soon in a long-teased series from TAS creator Bruce Timm, as well as J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, titled Batman: Caped Crusader.

Entertainment Weekly has new details on the series—originally slated for Max, now coming to Prime Video—as well as some insights from Timm and character designer James Tucker, who specifically set out not to duplicate that much-loved earlier Batman project. For one thing, it’s set in the 1940s, which will give the show more of a noir feel—as well as characters drawn to emulate the Batman comic art of the era—while eliminating modern touches like cell phones and computers.

Prime Video shared all the new images on X, featuring Batman, Catwoman, Jim Gordon, Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzell, and Clayface:

The most intriguing element sounds like Caped Crusader’s fresh take on Harley Quinn: according to EW, not only will there be no Joker hanging around, Harley herself will be Asian American.

“I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her, but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend,” Timm told EW. “So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she’s Dr. Quinzel, she’s a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she’s Harley Quinn, she’s scary.” As you can see in the images, aside from Harley, other villains we’ll see get that 1940s take include Catwoman (an homage to Barbara Stanwyck’s con artist character in 1941 screwball comedy The Lady Eve) and Clayface (“inspired by classic horror movies”).

And Harley’s not the only “weird” element Caped Crusader will contain; the show’s version of Batman is also “a really weird human being,” according to Timm. An overtly weird Batman? Bring it! Head to Entertainment Weekly for more from Timm and Tucker; Batman: Caped Crusader hits Prime Video August 1.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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