The surprisingly good Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover is a movie now

In 2015, DC Comics and IDW Publishing put out Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a surprisingly good six-issue miniseries where the Turtles found themselves stranded in the DC Universe and Batman got to deliver lines like “This is where I watched my parents die, Raphael.”

Now, that six-issue miniseries is going to be an animated film.

Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon (the current television home of the turtles) have come together for Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, based on the 2015 comic series written by James Tynion IV (Detective Comics) and Freddie Williams II (Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe).

Tynion and Williams’ comic was the best of all comic book miracles; a premise that seemed ludicrous on its face, but that turned out to be fertile ground for action beats and character development. There’s no reason to assume the movie won’t tread the same ground.

And on top of that, there’s the voice cast. Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Batman: Arkham Origins) will play Batman and the Joker which, as Syfy notes, will make him the first person ever to do that in the same production. Rounding out the Gotham City characters are Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) as Batgirl, Tara Strong (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) as both Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Cas Anvar (The Expanse) as Ra’s al Ghul, Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911!) as Bane, Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) as the Penguin, and John DiMaggio (Adventure Time) as Mr. Freeze.

Over on the half-shell side, Darren Criss (American Crime Story, Birds of Prey) will play Raphael, with Kyle Mooney (Saturday Night Live) as Michelangelo, Baron Vaughn (Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return) as Donatello, and Eric Bauza (Transformers: Robots in Disguise) as Leonardo.

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released “this spring,” according to Syfy.