When Ali Selim was brought in to helm MCU’s Secret Invasion, he was warned against reading the comics, as the Disney Plus series had nothing to do with the source material. While it’s not wrong for adaptations to deviate from the source material, in the case of MCU, avoiding creators from delving into comics has backfired for them.
On the contrary, Bruce Timm almost rejected a film for not being knowledgeable about the comics it was based on, which ended up being one of the best Batman films of all time.
Bruce Timm Wasn’t Initially Onboard With Batman: Under the Red Hood
Bruce Timm‘s contribution to DC can’t be overstated, as he has been delivering peak Batman stuff since the ’90s. And continuing his illustrious run, in 2010, the director once again hit it out of the park with Batman: Under the Red Hood, which currently stands at a perfect 100% at the Tomatometer. But initially, when he was pitched the idea of Under the Red Hood, Timm wasn’t immediately on board, as he had no knowledge about the comic it was based on.
Despite reading the comic after, the Batman: The Animated Series creator was still tentative about helming the project. However, his issues were eventually resolved after he had a sitdown with comic book artist Judd Winick.
Timm recalled:
“When I was first Pitched the idea of Red Hood, I wasn’t at all interested, and I hadn’t actually read the comic at that point either. I picked up the comic, and I thought it was ‘okay’. It could be done, but I really wasn’t convinced. It wasn’t until after I sat down with Judd (Winik), for every issue I had, he had a solution. After that, we started working on it right away”
As a result, the final result ended up being even better than the comic, quite contrary to how things turned out for Secret Invasion.
Tim Burton’s Batman Films Paved the Way for Bruce Timm’s Magnum Opus
Even though Batman: The Animated Series was intended for kids, following its mature storytelling and dark undertones, it made for some brilliant TV for adults, which is beloved by fans to this day.
However, Timm might not have been able to convince Fox Kids for a dark retelling of the Caped Crusader if it wasn’t for the success of Tim Burton‘s Batman films.
He explained:
“There was definitely a lot of pressure. But we were actually quite lucky, when that show was being developed we were coming off the heels of the Tim Burton Batman films, which were very dark in tone. That actually created a great transition for the animated series. It made it easier to go to the Fox network and tell them we wanted to approach the show with a darker more serious tone, and more dramatic take on the character, which is what we had originally planned to do.”
While taking creative liberties in order to improve upon the source material is always welcomed, ignoring it completely often leads to subpar outcomes, similar to Secret Invasion.
Batman: Under the Red Hood is available to stream on Max.
