After HBO Max’s Batman: The Audio Adventures put a lighthearted spin on the Dark Knight mythos last fall, Spotify is taking Bruce Wayne back to his gritty roots with its own scripted podcast series, Batman Unburied. The new audio drama features a script by David Goyer, who previously co-wrote all three films in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight saga as well as 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Some listeners might not appreciate the way Goyer significantly overhauled the hero’s backstory. But in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Goyer discussed his reasoning behind these changes.
Unburied takes place in world that’s markedly different from mainstream DC lore. In this universe, Bruce’s parents are alive and well; and rather than bringing criminals to justice as Batman, Bruce instead follows in his father’s footsteps and lands a job in the medical profession, where he works as a forensic pathologist. Eventually, his work leads him to investigate a new Gotham serial killer known as the Harvester. But Bruce’s obsession with with the perp exacts a toll on his own sanity.
Goyer likened this approach to an Elseworlds story or “something we might do with DC’s Black Label” imprint. But more importantly, it gave him the creative freedom to examine the detective side of Bruce’s personality from a unique angle.
“The inciting incident that usually turns Bruce into Batman is the murder of his parents,” said Goyer. “So I was interested in exploring what would happen if his parents had never been murdered. Would he have gone into crime fighting? Would he have gone into the medical field? He probably wouldn’t have become Batman, so at least in this version, that’s how we arrived at him still being a detective. He’s just more of a forensics detective.”
RELATED: Release Date Set for Spotify’s Batman Unburied Podcast
Another selling point for Goyer was being able to cast whoever he wanted to voice the series’ characters. That’s why the cast primarily features actors of color, including Winston Duke (Bruce) and Lance Reddick (Thomas Wayne).
“We had a lot more liberty with the voice casting than we might have if we were making a feature film,” added Goyer. “So when I talked to Spotify, Warner Bros. and DC, I said that I really wanted to go for some actors who might not be traditionally thought of to play Batman, the Riddler or Barbara Gordon, and they were completely open. In fact, they were excited about it, so that’s how we got such an incredibly exciting casting. Winston Duke was one of my first choices.”
Batman Unburied will consist of 15 episodes. However, don’t expect this to be Goyer’s last visit to the scripted podcast realm. The writer also shared that he’s also working on two other DC narrative dramas. According to him, “one exists in the Batman Unburied universe and one doesn’t.”
The first two episodes of Batman Unburied are currently available to stream on Spotify. New chapters will continue to hit the platform every Tuesday through the end of June.
Have you been enjoying the podcast so far? Let us know in the comment section below!
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