Batman And The New Robin (partially found unproduced animated TV series; 1988)

Promotional poster.

Status: Partially Found

Batman And The New Robin is an unproduced animated television series by Nelvana. Pitched in the late 1980s, the proposed show would've starred Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd. In the decades since, pieces of the pitch have surfaced online. It remains unclear how much work went into the project before it was abandoned.

History

As an unproduced series, Batman And The New Robin was never formally announced. It first came to light in the late 1980s as a series bible for a Nelvana-produced Batman series written by Babylon 5's J. Michael Straczynski was uploaded onto a Bulletin Board System called ExecuNet. The document, dated March 8th, 1988, was preserved and shared in 2016 by Critical Blast's RJ Carter.^[1] Inside, it contains the pilot's script alongside outlines for four additional episodes. Straczynski also created character profiles for series-specific roles and those from other Batman media.

Canadian artist Michael Thorner shared three pieces of concept art of the titular heroes on his Flickr account in 2012.^[2] He stated that Nelvana lost the rights to Batman and instead focused efforts on their Beetlejuice series, which premiered on ABC in September 1989. Later that year, prolific DC Comics animation contributor Bruce Timm revealed that Bob Camp had worked on the project.^[3]

In 2015, then DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio shared a promotional image for the series, remarking that it was pitched when he was working for ABC's Children's Programming department.^[4] The collage showcases Batman, Robin, Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and a character assumed to be Frederica Miles.