Ethan Hawke has been quietly voicing Batman in a DC series that most fans have never heard of

Every comic book movie fan has their favorite Batman. For ’90s kids, Michael Keaton will always be the quintessential Dark Knight, while the generation immediately following him will always look to Christian Bale as the on-screen crusader hero. However, kids growing up today may look back on their childhood with a fondness for Ethan Hawke’s version of the superhero — and they may not even know it. That’s because the actor — who Returning as the Grabber in “Black Phone 2” This month – she has been quietly voicing the character in the children’s animated series “Batwheels” for the past three years.

Hawkeye, who is still at the top of his game after 40 years in the industry, began voicing Batman in September 2022 when “Batwheels” debuted on HBO Max before arriving as part of the “Cartoonito” programming block on Cartoon Network a month later. The show has since returned for a second season alongside several shorts and follows the adventures of Batman’s various vehicles, all of which have become sentient thanks to the Batcomputer. (Hey, it’s a kids’ show.) The show’s main character is actually Bam the Batmobile, voiced by actor Jacob Bertrand, best known for portraying Eli “Hawkeye” Moskowitz in “Cobra Kai.” But as you might expect, Batman appears throughout the series to guide his talking vehicles on their mission to defeat Gotham’s various crooks, with Hawkeye voicing the character in 20 of the series’ 74 episodes.

The actor has been on a tear lately, playing Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, which has so far received excellent reviews, and starring in FX’s The Lowdown, along with appearing in “The Black Phone 2” (which Stephen King gave his stamp of approval on). However, “Batwheels” remains one of his lesser-known recent projects, but it’s important not just because it’s Batman, but because Hawkeye previously turned down an offer to star as the Dark Knight.

Batwheels season 3 is scheduled to premiere in 2025 and will see the return of Ethan Hawke as the animated Batman. Interestingly, Hawkeye was on the shortlist to portray Batman in the 1990s. In fact, he was reportedly Joel Schumacher’s best choice to take on the role in the 1995 film Batman Forever after… Michael Keaton walked away from Batman completely. As the actor once revealed in a Details magazine Q&A He turned down the offer to star in Schumacher’s neon-filled trip to Gotham due to the fact that he “didn’t want to go to a Knicks game and have everyone say, ‘Wow, you were a great Batman!’ As Hawke said, “That wasn’t my fucking goal in life.” But the actor always seems to regret his decision, and continues to say that he should have accepted the offer: “Now I wish I had. Because I could have used it to do other things.”

Honestly, it seems as if Hawkeye wasn’t necessarily the right choice for the role at the time, because by his own admission, he was just going to use Batman as a launching pad for other projects. Now, the actor has finally found his perfect portrayal of the Dark Knight right when he was supposed to find him. The actor does a good job in this role, evoking the spirit The late, great Kevin Conroywhose performances in “Batman: The Animated Series” and numerous other Bat-related media remain crucial to large swaths of fans. Hawke somehow manages to wring a little more grit and grit out of the voice, while effectively delivering kid-friendly humor. said co-executive producer Michael J. Stern Animation scoop“What Ethan brings is this kind of exhausted father energy. He has these young men to take care of — Batgirl and Robin. And he’s kind of a father figure to the Batwheels even though they can’t talk directly to each other. He’s always got this constant nagging that Ethan invented.”

Batwheels is streaming on HBO Max.