'Creators ran out of ideas,' says Kevin Conroy, voice of Gotham's hero in 'Batman: The Animated Series'
A not-too-insignificant portion of the millennial generation grew up to an entirely different subset of programming than what the kids watch today.
That included some beloved cartoons from the DC animated universe, dubbed Timmverse because of the significant contributions made by Bruce Timm.
Chief amongst that was 'Batman: The Animated Series,' which many consider being the greatest comic book television show of all-time and which aired between 1992 and 1995.
Fans regularly clamor for the beloved show to be brought back, but Kevin Conroy, who voice acted for the titular character Bruce Wayne/Batman in the show, as well as several other adaptations, revealed why such a thing could possibly never happen.
Talking at the MCM Comic Con London on May 26, Conroy responded to a question whether he would ever consider reprising his role as Gotham's dark knight, answering: "Oh gosh, yeah, I'd love to," but immediately added why that was unlikely.
"They didn’t stop making the shows because the audience wasn’t there or the actors weren’t there, they stopped, really, because the creators ran out of ideas for stories. And they didn’t want to compromise on the quality of what they had and start creating kind of silly stories," he said.
He then explained how the show led to the birth of its other, equally popular iterations: "So they go, 'Look, we gotta go in a whole new different direction.' So then they went to Batman and Robin, they brought in Robin, that was the next series."
"Then they went into Batman Beyond, you know, recruiting a young guy. And then it was the Justice League. They were always looking at different ways to re-imagine the characters, just so they can get new storylines. A lot of it had to do with trying to come up with stories that weren’t becoming ridiculous," he continued, adding that the actors would "love to have done more of them" and that they could get all the actors back today because "everyone loved it that much."
Besides guest-starring on shows such as 'Cheers,' 'Dynasty,' 'Search For Tomorrow,' 'Matlock,' and 'Murphy Brown,' Conroy primarily made his name for his starring role in 'Batman: The Animated Series.'
Following his success in the show, he went on to voice Batman in several shows in the DC Animated Universe such as 'The New Batman Adventures,' 'Batman Beyond,' and 'Justice League,' as well as movies 'Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998),' 'Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker,' and 'Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman.'
Conroy has also lent his voice as Batman to several video games, most recently turning out in 'Batman: Arkham Knight,' 'Batman: Arkham VR,' and 'Injustice 2.'
He also took part in the campaign to convince Warner Bros. to fund an animated 'Justice League' reunion.