100 Facts About Batman

He's a watchful protector, a dark knight, a hero inspired by the pulps of yore. He's also one of

the most long-running characters in pop culture history. I'm Dave Baker, and today we're going to

be listing 100 facts you didn't know about Batman. Batman was created by Bill Finger with Bob Kane

and his first appearance was in Detective Comics 27. This early version of the character was heavily

inspired by pulp characters, such as Zorro, the Phantom, the Shadow, and the Spider. The character's

dark, vengeful tone was quickly lightened up in order to appeal to children. He was given a teenage

sidekick, Robin, in Detective Comics 38 from April of 1940. Despite the fact that Bob Kane received

credit for the writing and drawing, these comics were largely produced by an army of ghost artists

The first film adaptation of Batman came in 1943 with the simply titled The Batman, a sequel series

Batman and Robin was released in 1949. Bob Kane was the only one who received credit for the

creation of Batman. There was a specific clause in his contract with the publisher that prohibited

other people from being credited. Bob's father was a lawyer, so the contract that he struck with

National Publications stipulated that no one other than Bob Kane could be credited as the creator of

Batman. After National Publications rebranded as DC Comics, their name ostensibly just became

Detective Comics Comics. In 1966, the Batman TV show aired on ABC, starring Burt Ward and Adam

West. The show became so popular that Adam West and Burt Ward had basically their every desire

catered to, which meant backstage orgies. Yeah. Michael Usland, who was a production assistant

at Fox at the time, found out that the rights were available to Batman. He went down to the

optioning office and purchased them. He still owns them to this day. In 1989, when Warner Brothers

came to him and wanted to do a Batman film, they offered to buy the rights from him. He refused

saying that he'd only licensed them the rights to Batman, and that he wanted to be an executive

producer on every Batman film moving forward, and he has been. Frank Miller, just having worked on

books like Ronan and Daredevil, was given the keys to Batman toward the end of the 1980s. He decided

to tell a story of the ending of Batman's life. Sort of. Dark Knight Returns repositioned Batman

showcasing the aging Bruce Wayne returning to the cowl and attempting to stop a resurgent crime wave

It depicts the previously infallible world's greatest detective as a distinctly flawed and

human character. The book became a massive hit, propelling Frank Miller to superstar status

Dark Knight Returns also landed Miller the job of writing RoboCop 2 and 3. He even has a cameo

in RoboCop 2 as Frank, the scientist who is creating Nuke, the drug sweeping New Detroit

DC asked Miller to take over the post-crisis on Infinite Earth's Batman relaunch, where he

created Batman Year One with artist David Mazzucchelli. It follows a young Bruce Wayne over

the last year of his life as he takes up the cowl and attempts to become Batman. Jack Nicholson

accepted the role of the Joker on some very strict conditions. He wanted top billing, a portion of

the film's monetary haul, including merch, and his very own shooting schedule. The film was shot on

the James Bond soundstage at Pinewood Studios. The part of Batman slash Bruce Wayne was initially

offered to Ray Liotta, who turned it down. He also got offered the Joker and Harvey Dent, but he

turned down both of those as well One of Batman 89 catchphrases I Batman wasn even in the script The original line Keaton was supposed to say was I am the night One idea that Michael Keaton tried to get into the film

that wasn't so successful is he wanted to do a scene where Vicki Vale wakes up in Wayne Manor

and discovers Bruce sleeping upside down like a bat. For Batman Returns, the production cast Marlon Waynes

as Robin, but his character was cut from the script before filming could begin

Marlon has said multiple times that he still receives residuals from the Batman Returns merchandise, despite not even appearing in the

film. In early drafts of the film, Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent was going to appear in a

minor role. However, that too was cut from the final production. In another alternate version

of Batman Returns, Catwoman and the Penguin would have teamed up to be literal treasure hunters

After the wild success of the film, WB commissioned a Catwoman spinoff film that would have starred

Michelle Pfeiffer and been directed by Burton. Obviously, this version never came together either

But Warner Brothers kept it alive, and French director Pitoth eventually helmed the project with Halle Berry starring

The 90s saw Batman's back being broken in the comics by Bane, after which he was then replaced by a genetically manufactured assassin named Jean-Paul Vallee

Batman the Animated TV Series got a theatrical film titled Mask of the Phantasm

which was a loose adaptation of Frank Miller's Year One. Kevin Conroy holds the most performances as Batman

He's played him in video games, the animated series, Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League

Justice League Unlimited, and multiple original DC animated films. One notable deleted scene from Batman Forever featured Bruce going on a pseudo-vision quest

and communing with a massive animatronic bat. Before production got up and running, a few people were circling the role of the Riddler

most notably Matthew Broderick. However, the weirdest person to try and play the Riddler you'll never guess, Michael Jackson

Leonardo DiCaprio actually had multiple meetings with director Joel Schumacher about being cast as the boy wonder Robin

Elizabeth Saunders appeared in both Batman Forever and Batman Robin as Gossip Gertie

Val Kilmer opted not to return, and the role of Bruce Wayne slash Batman went to George Clooney

Before Clooney took the gig, David Duchovny of X-Files fame was being approached for the role of Batman

Additionally, Sir Anthony Hopkins was in talks to star as Mr. Freeze, which would have been a much better casting than, you know, what we got

Arnold Schwarzenegger appears for only 32 minutes of screen time in Batman and Robin

and for that, he was paid $25 million. Schumacher opted to dial up the campiness and return Batman to the tone similar to the 1966 TV show

This is evidenced by the fact that, well, there's nipples on the Batsuit

There were actually plans for a follow-up Batman film had Batman and Robin been a success

It was going to be called Batman Triumphant. The film was going to be a showcase for Scarecrow

and rumors say that it was going to have Nick Cage as Dr. Crane, a.k.a. Scarecrow

The comics saw a major resurgence during the early 2000s, due in large part to Jim Lee taking over Detective Comics for an iconic run

written by Jeff Loeb, titled Hush. The story behind the book's creation is pretty bizarre

Jim Lee hosts a regular poker game for comics industry pros. On a particularly big hand, Jeff Loeb bet him that he couldn't meet one year's worth of deadlines

on an ongoing series. Well Hush is now a classic and was even adapted into an animated film in 2019 Warner Brothers started coming up with plans to reboot Batman just about the time that they shut down the franchise

From here, they simultaneously developed a Batman Beyond live-action feature film and a Year One adaptation

Frank Miller partnered with director Darren Aronofsky to make the Year One adaptation

The film was going to be a 1970s period piece that would have been a cross between Taxi Driver and Zorro

In this version of the script, Alfred is a tall African-American man named Big Al, who runs an auto body mechanics shop

The Batman Beyond film was supposedly going to be written by Paul Dini and star

Freddie Prinze Jr. as Terry and Paul Newman as Bruce. This Christopher Nolan script was heavily influenced by Frank Miller's comic book

version of Year One. The script was originally shot under the working title of The Intimidation Game

During the press tour for Batman Begins, Christian Bale did all of his press

interviews in an American accent because he was concerned people wouldn't accept

an English actor playing Bruce Wayne. The next film in the franchise, Dark Knight, was inspired by the comics The Long Halloween and The Killing Joke

Heath Ledger directed the handheld footage that is seen in the movie when the Joker is torturing a copycat Batman character

Katie Holmes' Rachel Dawes was recast for The Dark Knight with Maggie Gyllenhaal

Multiple actors were considered to replace Holmes, including Rachel McAdams and Emily Blunt

The reason that Heath Ledger consistently licked his lips as the Joker was that he didn't want his prosthetics to loosen and come off of his face

So he developed an in-character tick of licking them consistently in order to attempt to keep the prosthetics in place

After the film was released, Hussain Callan, the mayor of Batman Turkey

sued Warner Brothers for what he deemed as a negative impact on their city due to the dark overtones of the film

The third Nolan Batman film was originally intended to be based around the trial of the Joker

However, since Ledger's passing, Nolan was forced to reevaluate. The main inspiration of The Dark Knight Rises is the 1990s crossover No Man's Land

Tom Hardy, who is only 5'9", wore three-inch lifts in his shoes for the whole production to try and make himself look taller

When Catwoman disappears from the rooftop mid-conversation with Batman, and he says

So that's what it feels like. That's taken directly from the acclaimed comic, Kingdom Come

In the film, the Bane theme features the words Deshi Visaro, which is Moroccan for Rise

According to Hardy, he based the Bane voice on Bartley Gorman, the bare-knuckle boxing champion of the UK

Warner Brothers decided to launch their own cinematic universe. They began with a Superman movie starring Henry Cavill

which then led to an adaptation of the long-gestating World's Finest film. Early in the film's development, WB execs debated approaching Christian Bale to return as Batman

However, he made it very clear he was not going to be returning. Director Zack Snyder's vision was heavily influenced by Miller's Dark Knight Returns

World's Finest is eventually retitled Batman v Superman colon Dawn of Justice

When Affleck ran into Christian Bale at a party, he asked him for advice, And the only thing Bale said was, make sure they put a zipper in your suit so you can use the restroom by yourself

In BVS, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was hired to play Thomas Wayne, Bruce's father

Normally, things like this are announced with loads of fanfare. However, the public learned about Mr. Morgan playing Thomas from a photo of an oil painting prop depicting the actor, which leaked online

BVS originally featured the Joker and the Riddler as key villains in the film However Snyder and writer Chris Teriel felt that these characters stole too much of the spotlight so they opted not to include them in the finished script The next film that flick would appear in

was Justice League, originally written by Chris Terrio and directed by Zack Snyder

However, when the WB saw the first rough cut of the film, they were very unhappy

They wanted to reposition the film to be more similar to how Marvel handled the Avengers films

Joss Whedon, Marvel's Boy Wonder, was brought in to take over and redirect and rewrite the film

The marketing campaign was based on Alex Ross's iconic portraits of the Justice League characters

The completed Justice League was much maligned by fans. Henry Cavill was shooting MI5 at the time

and was contractually prohibited from shaving his mustache. WB purportedly spent $2.2 million on CGI mustache removal

during the reshoots. To make things even more complicated, Zack Snyder's daughter took her own life while the film

was originally in production, which cast a dark shadow over all the proceedings

When in early talks for the Joker, WB execs wanted Todd Phillips to cast Leonardo DiCaprio

as the clown prince of crime. Joaquin Phoenix lost 52 pounds to play the Joker

The film's story of a failed comedian attempting to excise his pain through a life of crime

is loosely based on Alan Moore and Brian Bolin's The Killing Joke. The role of Thomas Wayne was originally

cast as Alec Baldwin, but he had to drop out at the last moment because of scheduling conflicts

On the set of the film, Robert De Niro and Joaquin Phoenix didn't get along. Phoenix didn't like the fact that De Niro made the whole cast

read through the script together. Following Justice League, Ben Affleck was going to make

a Batman film. He was going to co-write the film with DC head honcho Jeff Johns and direct

and star in the project. After approximately a year of working on the script, Affleck bowed out

of the project as the writer-director but stayed on to star in the film. However, this didn't last

long as Matt Reeves of Planet of the Apes fame came in with a fresh take that, well, to put it

simply, Affleck didn't like it. That's how we get The Batman, which appears to be a Seven-inspired

mystery, following the Riddler, going around killing members of the Court of Owls. The Court of Owls were introduced by Greg Capullo

and Scott Snyder in their iconic Batman run. Matt Reeves has also sold a television show

that will take place in the same universe as the Batman, centering on Gotham's police force

In the CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths, Robert Wohl makes a cameo as Alexander Knox from Batman 89

It was recently announced that Michael Keaton had signed a multi-picture deal with Warner Brothers

to reprise his role as Batman. His first appearance is purportedly going

to be as the mentor to Ezra Miller's Flash in the new multiverse-spanning Flash film

Rumor has it that after the Flash, Keaton is going to basically be the Nick Fury of

the DCEU. It was also recently confirmed that Ben Affleck will reprise his role as Batman for a small

but important part in the film. No word yet on if Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Thomas Wayne will show up as Flashpoint Batman, like

he did in the comic that the Flash movie is based on. There are also substantial rumors that a Batman Beyond movie is in the works, with Keaton

and starring as Wayne, and rumors suggest that Tim Burton is even being courted to return as director

Thanks to the effort of the novelist and documentary filmmaker Mark Nobleman, Bill Finger's long lost

granddaughter, Athena Finger, has been found and came to an agreement with DC Comics

allowing Bill to receive the proper co-creator credit that he deserved in all future film and TV productions

Bill has received his rightful co-creator credit on every DC film or show since Batman V Superman