Blant de mest innflytelsesrike og hedrede animerte seriene noensinne er uten tvil Batman: The Animated Series, som kjørte i 85 episoder fra 1992 til 1995. Den betraktes fortsatt som en ikonisk serie, og nå tyder noe på at HBO og Warner Bros. vil prøve å utvikle en direkte oppfølger i samme stil.
I den seneste episoden av filmregissør og produsent Kevin Smiths podcast, Fatman Beyond, sier Smith og medvert Marc Bernadin at de begge har hørt at dette prosjektet eksisterer.
"I don't think that's a rumor, I wouldn't say 'Set your watch to it,' but it's an idea whose time is not only coming, I think it came, and it's smoking a cigarette. I think that's gonna happen. How f-king amazing would that be because you can just literally pick up and keep going. It's not like, 'oh we gotta explain why everyone's older,' it's f-king animation man so you can go right back to those amazing f-king stories. That to me is no brainer, you've got HBO Max, you're already doing that amazing Harley Quinn show, like, you're printing money if you go back and do Batman: The Animated Series. You can't f-k up the legacy, that's for damn sure. You know what I'm saying, it's not like 'oh they went back and did it again and now it's ruined,' like some people felt about Twin Peaks. You can't f-k it up, there's no reason not to do it, as long as you've got the key creative components, as long as Bruce Timm is involved, wants to be there. F-king go for it for heaven's sakes."
Det er langt i fra en bekreftelse, men Smith har hatt direkte adgang til mange av beslutningsprosessene som foregår i Hollywood, og hører derfor en del om hva som skjer rundt omkring.