BATMAN: DEATH IN THE FAMILY Allows Let’s You Choose Your Own Adventure

WBHE has announced a new collection of DC shorts and a new interactive adventure! DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family will be available later this year. Check out the full details down below.

Batman: A Death in the Family is one of the most iconic stories in comic book history. DC Comics proposed a question. Will Robin live or die? This critical decision was left up to the fans to decide. They cast their vote and killed the Boy Wonder. Now, over 30 years later, fans once again have to choose. Will Robin live or die?

In a press release for DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family, producer Brandon Vietti (Batman: Under the Red Hood, Young Justice) said the following:

Batman: Death in the Family is essentially a comic book come to life. We’ve paid homage to the 1988 interactive experience of DC’s ‘A Death in the Family’ comics release by giving fans a unique opportunity to craft their own story through a branching tool that can lead in multiple directions. The viewer gets to choose these characters’ paths, and each choice paves an alternate future for all of the characters and, ultimately, the story.

The interactive film will have different twists and turns throughout, leading the viewer to create their version of the story. The choices along the way put greater weight on the viewers’ decisions and result in even stronger stories. Viewers can also choose to allow the story to tell itself, as there is an option to let the Blu-ray decide its own path. Vietti went on to say:

From the very first navigation card, we wanted to give the audience an impression of what they’re getting into, but then also give them something unexpected – maybe even something they’ll regret, so they have to think twice about every future choice they make. Branched storytelling has to be stronger than just the gimmick of the choices – it has to be rewarding and offer new and worthwhile insights into the characters. It needs to involve you, and keep you searching for the next
twist. So we sought to subvert expectations and do something very different.

Not only will you get Batman: A Death in the Family, the film also comes with four animated shorts. Sgt. Rock, Death, The Phantom, and Adam Strange.

Originally attached to Batman: Hush, Sgt. Rock is executive produced and directed by Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series) from a script by award-winning comics writers Louise Simonson & Walter Simonson and Tim Sheridan (Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Reign of the Supermen). The original tale finds battle-weary Sgt. Rock thinking he has seen everything that World War II can dish out. But he is in for the surprise of his life when he is assigned to lead a company consisting of legendary monsters into battle against an unstoppable platoon of Nazi zombies. Karl Urban (Star Trek & Lord of the Rings film franchises) provides the voice of Sgt. Rock.

Inspired by Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, Death is produced & directed by Sam Liu (Superman: Red Son, The Death of Superman) and written by J.M. DeMatteis (Batman: Bad Blood). In the story, Vincent, an artist with unresolved inner demons, meets a mysterious girl who helps him come to terms with his creative legacy and eventual death. Leonard Nam (Westworld) provides the voice of Vincent, and Jamie Chung (The Gifted, Big Hero 6) is the voice of Death.

Attached as a bonus feature on the release of Superman: Red Son, The Phantom Stranger has Bruce Timm (Batman: The Killing Joke) at the helm as executive producer & director, and the short is written by Ernie Altbacker (Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, Batman: Hush). Set in the 1970s, the short find the enigmatic DC mystery man simultaneously playing both omniscient narrator and active character in a story of supernatural comeuppance for evildoers. Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick) gives voice to The Phantom Stranger, and Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Justice League Unlimited) provides the voice of Seth.

Adam Strange is produced and directed by Butch Lukic (Superman: Man of Tomorrow), who also conceived the original story – which is written by J.M. DeMatteis (Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons, Constantine: City of Demons). The short was initially attached to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. On a rugged asteroid mining colony, few of the toiling workers are aware that their town drunk was ever anything but an interplanetary derelict. But when the miners open a fissure into the home of a horde of deadly alien insects, his true identity is exposed. He is space adventurer Adam Strange, whose heroic backstory is played out in flashbacks as he struggles to save the very people who have scorned him for so long. Charlie Weber (How To Get Away with Murder) provides the voice of Adam Strange, alongside Roger R. Cross, Kimberly Brooks, Ray Chase, and Fred Tatasciore.

DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family will be available on October 13th, 2020. Stay tuned for more information as it comes. You can watch the trailer here.