A lot of nerds try to mash-up superhero movie trailers with footage from other movies, shows, cartoons, etc., and a lot of nerds fail. Either the creator doesn’t have the patience to truly hunt down the perfect footage, or the source material doesn’t work because it doesn’t have any appropriate footage, or a million other things. So let me be clear when I say this recreation of The Batman’s new trailer from classic Batman: The Animated Series is pretty astonishing.
All credit goes to frequently nerd pop culture masher-upper Darth Blender for the video. Now watch, enjoy, and then we’ll discuss:
Here’s why I assumed this mash-up couldn’t work: the Batman of The Batman trailer is incredibly angry, and there are many, many shots of him being incredibly angry and taking that out on criminals. But Darth Blender has managed to find a collection of shots in TAS where Batman absolutely owns a big bad, which really resonate as substitutes. The reveal of the big “?” box is actually scarier than the “?” sitting on top of Riddler’s cup of coffee, thanks to Michael Giacchino’s score. The few blips of comedy are also great. The Batman’s conspiracy floor getting replaced with Batman reading a newspaper is absolutely outstanding, as is Riddler’s head popping out of a drum in lieu of the live-action movie’s Riddler waving his face around on a giant, Times Square-esque TV screen.
For your convenience, here’s the original trailer revealed this past weekend at DC Fandome, to better compare and contrast the two.
The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred, an unrecognizable Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/the Penguin, and Paul Dano as the Riddler is set to premiere in Australian cinemas on March 3, 2022.