Bruce Timm is known for creating some of the most iconic shows of the DC Animated Universe. He was the mastermind behind legendary shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and Batman Beyond. Timm was also instrumental in producing animated films with the DC comic book characters including Batman: Under the Red Hood and The Dark Knight Returns.
While developing the animated shows for DC and WB, Timm reportedly set a proper continuity for the DCAU and even went as far as setting Batman Beyond in the future to protect the established canon. However, the one thing he reportedly did not plan was incorporating villains from Batman and Superman into the Justice League.
Bruce Timm Initially Wanted Justice League To Stand On Its Own
Creator Bruce Timm has developed iconic shows in the DC Animated Universe such as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and the sequels The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond. He developed the shows as part of the DCAU and reportedly set a continuity for the shows, with many of the same talents working on them.
While he intentionally kept the continuity for these shows, he reportedly wanted the Justice League animated show to be its own thing. Even though voice actors such as Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamil, Clancy Brown, and others reprised their roles in the new show, he still reportedly wanted to make the team-up show stand on its own.
However, the creator revealed in an interview with The World’s Finest that he and the team unintentionally brought over villains from Batman and Superman into Justice League, making it one shared universe. Talking about the appearance of Braniac and Mercy Graves in season 2 of Justice League, he said
“It just happened. We intentionally avoided using STAS and BTAS supporting cast members for the first season of JL, because we wanted to make JL stand on its own as much as possible….By the time we started season 2, we thought he would be a great way to kick off the new season, and incidentally, start re-introducing elements of the previous series as well.”
Bruce Timm also mentioned at the time to expect more such continuity tie-ins in the show. The second season would turn out to be the final season of Justice League, with a follow-up series titled Justice League: Unlimited being developed soon after.
Bruce Timm Spoke About Tying Up Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker and Justice League
The DC Animated Universe or the Timmverse was mostly overseen by Bruce Timm. The creator and showrunner was at the head of the table while developing many iconic shows and films under the DCAU, and the team had even created a continuity and shared universe much before the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
One of the most controversial films of the DCAU was Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Taking place years in the future where an older Bruce Wayne acts as a mentor to Tim Drake’s Batman, the film had plot points from the show Batman Beyond and The New Batman Adventures. However, the film ran into a controversy right before its release.
The film, which was set for a Halloween 2000 release, had to be re-edited as the USA was reeling in from the terrible Columbine High School Massacre. Amidst concerns of violence in children’s media, the film was re-edited and released in December of the same year. The film was rated PG-13 (via Slash Film).
Bruce Timm mentioned that it would be tough to incorporate plot points from the film into Justice League as they wanted to use the Joker (he dies in Return of the Joker). He said to The World’s Finest,
“Return of the Joker is a trickier thing…for one thing, we still maintain that B-Beyond is only a POSSIBLE future, mostly to placate the hardcore B: TAS fans who choose to believe the B-Beyond world will never happen…which is fine by me! Continuity’s a fluid thing. ..Ultimately, though, since we want to use Joker in JL, obviously, Robin can’t have killed him yet…or maybe he never WILL…ow, my head hurts.”
Bruce Timm mentioned that he had ideas of connecting Batman: The Animated Series to Justice League and then connecting the latter to Batman Beyond’s future but that would again be a tedious process.
