Batman: The Animated Series creator will continue the show — with Jason Todd

It’s time to return to the Gotham of Batman: The Animated Series, this time in comic form. The show’s co-creator, Paul Dini, is teaming up with fellow producer Alan Burnett, and artist Ty Templeton to create a new series for DC with Batman: The Adventures Continue, a mini-series set in the world of Batman: The Animated Series.

Batman: The Adventures Continue will take place shortly after the events of The Animated Series. Tim Drake will be a still-fresh Robin, and Batman is still spry and in his prime, years before the events of Batman Beyond. But the series won’t be all about the future.

“We’re going back to cover certain gaps in the original series,” Burnett says. “Events that didn’t have bearing on the series at the time, but do now. In other words, there will be secret histories that will turn Batman’s world upside down. Things that no one knew were out there, until now.”

Continuing the intrigue, Burnett also hints at a young character who will knows “way too much about Batman.” Burnett also calls this character a “smart, super-elusive loner,” who will be a “real jolt for old fans.”

While those are the only hints, they all seem to point to the introduction of Jason Todd, the “bad boy” Robin who was murdered by the Joker and resurrected by Ra’s al Ghul, into the Batman: The Animated Series universe — and potentially his dark vigilante alter ego, the Red Hood. We won’t know for sure until the series is released.

While the writing of the mini-series will be handled by Animated Series veterans, and that holds for the art as well. Templeton has showcased his ability to render the animated Batman style into dynamic comic panels in adaptations of the Animated Series world as far back as 1992’s Batman Adventures.

Batman: The Adventures Continue will be a digital-first six-issue mini-series, and its first installments will be released in April, 2020. Batman: The Adventures Continue #1, the first full print issue, will collect the first two digital chapters, and hit shelves on May 6.

Update: Paul Dini, in an interview with Enterainment Weekly, confirmed that Jason Todd will in fact be appearing in the new comic series.

“We’d gone from Dick Grayson to Tim Drake, and we had left out Jason,” Dini told EW. “What we’re doing with this is looking at this as a chance to go back and acknowledge that was a part of the animated Batman’s history. For the first time you’re going to see that story and you’re going to see what happened in that relationship. So, it’s our chance not only to do Jason Todd but also the Red Hood.”

Dini also confirmed that a few other characters who never made it into The Animated Series will show up in The Adventures Continue, including Azrael and Deathstroke.