Executive producer and showrunner Mike Roth talks about the DC Studios animated show ‘Bat-Fam,’ now streaming on Prime Video.
The animated DC Studios world gets cuter and more action-packed as Bat-Fam continues the adventures of Damien Wayne (Yonas Kibreab) as Little Batman from Merry Little Batman.
io9 sat down with Mike Roth, executive producer and showrunner of DC Studios and WB Animation’s release Bat-Fam. Now streaming on Prime Video, the series picks up on the entertaining superheroic family antics at Wayne Manor with Damien and Bruce Wayne (Luke Wilson), along with new friends and foes.
Sabina Graves, io9: I’m a really big fan of Merry Little Batman, so I was excited to find out this is going to be a series when it was announced. Was it always the plan to launch off from the movie into a series, or how did both projects come about?
Mike Roth: Yeah, I think initially we just set out to make humble beginnings. We just set out to make a movie. And I think as we got the movie going, we quickly just wanted to see more of Gotham, of this world, through this design lens and see what other villains look like and just expand this world out and see what else we can do. And the relationship between Bruce and Damon, I think it’s so special. It’s a very different kind of Bruce relationship, like with his wards and with his son. And I think he just wanted to explore more of that and see what else we can do.
io9: Yes, definitely. And I really like this concept of found family that’s established early on with Claire (Volcana reformed and made young by the Lazarus Pit, voiced by Haley Tju) and Alicia (Pennyworth, voiced by London Hughes) coming in and sort of seeing that dynamic as well. Can you talk a bit more about why those characters were the perfect foils to bring in to challenge Damien but also help him figure out what family means?
Roth: I think you’re exactly right. I think the operating word is “challenge,” you know, like what kind of characters complement them and challenge them. As a little kid, I never had an older sibling, and I always thought it would be really cool to have an older sibling.
