‘Bat-Fam’ Showrunner Mike Roth & Team Reveal the Family Secrets of Their New Animated Series

This article was written for the November ’25 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 353).

Amid 2023’s Christmas rush, an animated film called Merry Little Batman hit streaming and became a delightful surprise among Prime Video’s seasonal fare. Directed by Mike Roth (Regular Show) and featuring remarkable character designs that were inspired by the art style of British illustrator and cartoonist Ron Searle, it was a sparkling addition to the Caped Crusader’s saga.

Next month, Roth and his team at Warner Bros. Animation are delivering Bat-Fam, an expansion of that quirky corner of the Batman universe swinging from Gotham to Prime Video as a 10-episode series this fall. The project is a collaboration between Warner Bros. Animation, Gigglebug Entertainment in Finland and Doghead in Italy. Roth is the series’ showrunner and executive produces alongside Jase Ricci and Sam Register. The new show is infused with Roth’s sharp comedic timing as we check back in with Bruce Wayne (Luke Wilson) and his domestic duties as a dad to Damian Wayne (Yonas Kibreab) alongside Alfred (James Cromwell), his loyal, world-weary butler.

Prime Video to the Rescue

“Originally, we were going to just make the movie,” Roth tells Animation Magazine. “But we had that whole kerfuffle when David Zaslav came to Warner Bros., and he had a different vision for the studio and where it was heading. So a bunch of projects didn’t get grandfathered in. They believed in the property enough that they wanted us to keep making it, but it wasn’t going to exist on HBO Max. Amazon saw Merry Little Batman and loved it. There was this feeling of: What else can we do with it? When we became a part of Amazon, that really solidified this notion that, yes, we need to see more of this fun property. When you see it, you want to see the whole DC Universe in these designs.”

Anyone who’s taken a gander at the distinct style of Merry Little Batman would instantly agree with Roth that growing this whimsical spinoff show is a no-brainer. But exactly why is Batman such a malleable hero who can be massaged and merged into so many iterations?

“Yeah, he works really well in the 1930s Batman [comics], where it’s just detective work. It works when it’s a little more campy in the Batman ’66 stuff. I think it’s because he’s such a well-defined character, so you can take him and put him in all these situations. But the core essence of Batman is always Batman. He’s always this stoic, everyday guy. Even though he’s a billionaire, he’s still a human being and doesn’t have superpowers. He wins on grit and smarts and experience, and sometimes he fails just like us. We stay tethered to the source; we just want to expand it a bit.”

When Roth and his team first approached this property, they had all seen Batman in his classic form but wondered just what he would look like as a father. Art director Guillaume Fesquet was instrumental in accomplishing that goal.

“There was a little bit of concern in the beginning,” Roth notes. “We didn’t want to lose the Batman presence. But we couched him and kept him as a guy who’s pragmatic and methodical. He has to control everything in his world, and that translated really well then to his relationship with his son. He’s like a helicopter dad, but we can essentially call him a Bat-Copter dad. Here’s his son, who wants nothing more than to be Batman like his dad and go out on these huge heroic adventures and vanquish Gotham villains and everything. And here he is and all he wants to do is protect his son. Even though he’s a dad, he’s still exuding this same Batman energy you’d see with him as a crime fighter; it’s just in this microcosm of keeping his son safe.”

“The core essence of Batman is always Batman. He’s always this stoic, everyday guy. He wins on grit and smarts and experience, and sometimes he fails just like us.”

— Mike Roth, Bat-Fam’s executive producer

Dropped into Batman’s home life in the wake of Merry Little Batman, Bat-Fam will introduce refreshing new characters and ex-villains, Roth says the series picks up right after the movie. “Christmas has happened, and other people have moved into the house like Ra’s al Ghul. Bruce has a history of having wards come through the mansion, so he does have this habit of taking in misfits,” he explains. “Ra’s had a mishap, and he’s been turned into a ghost in this astral form. He still has the bite, but he doesn’t have teeth behind the bite. So he’s always complaining about how Bruce runs the house, but in Ra’s’ perspective he was head of the League of Shadows, so he wants Damian to grow up to be that type.” Ra’s al Ghul is voiced by Michael Benyaer in the new show.

Also along for the ride is Damian’s sibling Claire Selton, a.k.a. Volcana (Haley Tju). “She also had an accident and nearly died,” explains Roth. “She was saved through the Lazarus Pit but stayed in too long. It took a 40-year-old woman and transformed her into a 12-year-old girl. She’s a bit snarky and cynical, to the dismay of Damian, who’s this spitfire full of enthusiasm and wants to jump into everything head-first and immediately wants to have this close relationship with her.”

The show also features Dr. Langstrom, a.k.a. Man-Bat. “He’s a former scientist whose cheese has slipped off his cracker a little bit,” says the showrunner. “He’s like the Dude in The Big Lebowski. He wears a robe and walks around the house thinking everything he says is ancient Greek philosophy, but really they’re just weird non sequiturs. He’s a blast, and he’s voiced by Bobby Moynihan. Picture a big hairy bat who sleeps in the belfry hanging upside-down and is obsessed with video games.”

Another new resident of Wayne Manor introduced in Bat-Fam is Alfred’s great-grandniece, Alicia Pennyworth (London Hughes), a character who expands the Batman universe. “You don’t really see Batman with childhood friends, but Alicia would spend summers at the house. She’d fly from London and stay there, so she grew up with Bruce and has this sibling-type relationship with him. Because of that closeness, she can stand up to him and dig a little deeper than other people might be willing to go. She has more of a breezy, easygoing nature.”

Good Times with the Baddies

After Batman cleaned up Gotham City in Merry Little Batman, many villains took it to heart and reformed, but in this series we learn that crime always has a way of returning. Some of the big bads come back, and Roth promises many cool new villains in addition to a few old foes.

“The lower-tier baddies like King Tut, Copperhead, Giganta and Killer Moth — they’ve all decided they want to roll back into society, and the reason Alicia came to Gotham is to be their therapist,” he adds. “So she sets up an organization called EVIL, which stands for ex-villains, and it’s almost like a halfway house, which means that sometimes they come to Wayne Manor for dinner. On top of all that, I think we’ve got one of the greatest voice casts of any series I’ve ever worked on — and that’s a tall thing to say, because I’ve worked on SpongeBob and some pretty illustrious, great shows.”

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Batman adaptation without a cool Batmobile for the Dark Knight to tool around in, and Bat-Fam might have conceived the most outrageous version yet.

“The Batmobile is such an identity for whichever Batman it is,” says Roth. “You see the Batmobile and it’s so iconic. Finding that specific Batmobile is super important to any Batman property. So we have this Batman — he’s 45, maybe 50. What does a cool car look like to him? He’d be in his midlife-crisis mode. He’d have an Ed Roth/Rat Fink type of vehicle. He’d have a big dragster. Something over the top. So much of who Bruce is comes out of my own being a father. I’ve got a Mustang Mach-E and it’s pretty fun to drive. I don’t mind the extra power!”

Warner Bros. Animation’s Bat-Fam premieres November 10 on Prime Video. The series will also stream on Amazon Kids+.