According to Arrowverse concept artist Andy Poon, Kevin Conroy is playing Kingdom Come Batman in the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. Conroy became famous for voicing the Caped Crusader in the 1990s' widely celebrated Batman: The Animated Series, and has continued to voice him across a wide variety of DC cartoon TV shows, animated films, and video games over the decades since. He's one of several DC legacy actors slated to appear in next month's game-changing DCTV crossover on The CW.
The Arrowverse currently encompasses The CW TV series Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman, and will bring Black Lightning in its multiverse with Crisis on Infinite Earths. Back in August, the new broke that Conroy will make the trip over to the live-action DC universe by playing a version of Bruce Wayne during the crossover. And while many fans logically theorized he would be portraying Bruce Wayne from Batman Beyond (given his age), it turns out Conroy will be playing another famous comic book iteration of the Caped Crusader altogether.
Poon took to Instagram to confirm Conroy is playing Kingdom Come Batman in Crisis on Infinite Earths, following the release of the first-look image of the actor in the crossover. You can check out his full post, below.
A four-part Elseworlds comic book story published in 1996, Kingdom Come takes place in a future where, among other things, an older Superman has been living in exile and Bruce Wayne relies on an exoskeleton to move around (due to the physical damage his body had accumulated after years of fighting crime as Batman). It certainly looked like Conroy is playing Kingdom Come Batman in the aforementioned photo, but it's good to have firm confirmation all the same. With Brandon Routh playing Kingdom Come Superman during the crossover (in addition to reprising his role as Ray Palmer), it appears he and Conroy's Bruce Wayne will hale from the same corner of the Arrowverse. And judging by the lighting in the Crisis on Infinite Earth images, Conroy's Caped Crusader may come face to face with Ruby Rose's Kate Kane aka. Batwoman at some point during the story.
Even after all these years of voicing different iterations of Batman, Conroy has yet to play a proper Kingdom Come-inspired version of the character. Crisis on Infinite Earths will therefore allow him to explore yet another iteration of Bruce Wayne, while at the same time giving DC fans the chance to see him make the jump to live-action - something they've wanted to happen, one way or another, for years. With so many story and character threads to service, the crossover won't be able to spend a whole lot of time on Conroy and/or the corner of the DCTV multiverse he and Routh's Superman call home. Nevertheless, the fact he's showing up at all is fun, and makes for a noteworthy addition to his larger body of work bringing Batman to life.
Crisis on Infinite Earths begins Sunday evening, December 8.
Source: Andy Poon