Amazon Has Rescued 'Merry Little Batman' From HBO Max Too, And Ordered A Spinoff Series
The movie was one of six projects whose development for the Warner Bros. Discovery streamer was halted in August. The pickup of 'Batman: Caped Crusader' was also confirmed.
Amazon has done it again. Weeks after it was reported that they would be picking up Batman: Caped Crusader on a two-season order, they picked up the film Merry Little Batman, after both were scrapped at HBO Max last year.
Not only that, but Merry Little Batman has a spinoff series that has also been ordered, called Bat-Family. Caped Crusader’s pickup was made official within this announcement as well. It and Merry Little Batman were two of six projects originally in development at HBO Max and Cartoon Network dropped in August 2022 by the Warner Bros. Discovery regime as a “cost-cutting measure”, believing they could make more money and monetize content by selling projects to third-party buyers. The four remaining projects looking for a home are The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical, Did I Do That To The Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story, and The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie. Most of the scrapped projects were intended to air on Cartoon Network’s ACME Night, which was supposed to be a haven for family-aimed original series, including Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and My Adventures With Superman, these two specifically now shifted to being Adult Swim originals with ACME Night airings. Merry Little Batman was announced with Did I Do That and The Day The Earth Blew Up in September 2021, shortly before the block’s premiere.
When celebrating the partnership, Sam Register, president of Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios expressed excitement that the new projects “ensure that there will be an animated Batman story ready to excite fans of all ages”. Which is very true. Caped Crusader’s older skew, Bat-Family is very kid aimed, but there’s also the preschool-aimed Batwheels, which airs on Cartoon Network’s Cartoonito block.
Merry Little Batman’s premise goes that Bruce’s son Damian Wayne left alone in Wayne Manor on Christmas Eve, transforms himself into “Little Batman” to protect his home and all of Gotham City from supervillains. The film is directed by Regular Show alum Mike Roth, who also serves as an executive producer, from a screenplay by Morgan Evans, whose previous credits include Earth to Ned. As it transitions into Bat-Family, Damian’s place as Little Batman is accepted by his father, and so the two of them and Alfred navigate superheroism together as a superfamily. Jase Ricci is an executive producer, while Register’s position within the studio makes him an executive producer on both projects
Zaslav’s strategy had also brought Teen Titans and Justice League Action and Cartoon Network classics Dexter’s Laboratory and Ed, Edd n Eddy to Prime Video at the start of the year. Similarly, The Powerpuff Girls was added to Netflix earlier this month, and Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and the five-season series The Batman are heading back there in May. after the Jason Kilar-led WarnerMedia administration had kept it basically exclusive to HBO Max, though Action has yet to ever make it. Funnily enough, this will mean Prime Video is set to have animated DC originals, while thanks to a deal with Sony, having live-action Spider-Man-based Marvel originals, centered on Spider-Man Noir and Silk, with similar circumstances having happened on Fox Kids, Kids WB, and even primetime Fox over the years.
With Merry Little Batman being a Christmas movie, it likely won’t premiere until November at the earliest, and therefore be followed by Bat-Family early next year. Caped Crusader not being beholden to such means it could come before either of them.
