10 Things You Need To Know About The Batman TV Show That Didn’t Happen
1. It Became Smallville
Smallville managed to put in an impressive ten seasons by the time the series came to a close in 2011, but the Tom Welling-fronted show wasn't originally even meant to be.
The reason that Smallville came into creation, was down to the fact that Bruce Wayne was cancelled.
When 1999 saw The Iron Giant's Tim McCanlies pitching an idea for a TV show based around the adventures of a young Bruce, it was The WB Television Network that immediately showed interest in such a property. From there, McCanlies began to map out the first season of the series... until a roadblock reared its head.
That roadblock was Warner Brothers' movie division deciding that it wanted to push forward with a new cinematic outing for Batman. With Requiem for a Dream's Darren Aronofsky on directing duties, this new Bat-flick was to be based around Frank Miller's Batman: Year One.
Of course, this picture would eventually become Batman Begins - which Christopher Nolan ended up spinning into his Dark Knight Trilogy.
From there, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar came to an agreement with Warners' Peter Roth to develop a TV show based on the earlier antics of another famed DC Comics hero. That hero would be Superman, and that show would become Smallville.
Even then, Gough and Millar tried to get a Bruce Wayne series off the ground as an accompaniment to Smallville. Again though, it was the development of Nolan's movies that put the kibosh on that idea.