The CW’s soon-to-premiere Gotham Knights series takes place in a world where Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, is killed under mysterious circumstances, requiring his adopted son Turner Hayes, played by Oscar Morgan, to investigate who perpetrated the crime. So needless to say we won’t be seeing a lot of Gotham City’s Caped Crusader in this upcoming DC TV show. However, according to Misha Collins, who plays Harvey Dent in Gotham Knights, apparently there were plans to have his Supernatural co-star Jensen Ackles don the cape and cowl.
Misha Collins revealed this piece of information when he was asked by Multiverse of Color if there had been any attempts made to secure Jensen Ackles a role on Gotham Knights. The Supernatural alum, who played Castiel opposite Ackles’ Dean Winchester and Jared Padalecki’s Sam Winchester on the series, shared that there were efforts made to have Ackles appear as Batman, but this didn’t work out due to scheduling issues, and David Miller was cast in the role instead. Collins explained:
Ah, yes. Yes, there was. I don’t know if I’m supposed to reveal this, but we tried to work it out to have Jensen play Batman on the show. It was all kind of teed up, but unfortunately, Jensen was on another show at the time [laughs], and coordinating between two series is challenging. So it didn’t ultimately end up working out, but we tried. Jensen was pretty psyched about the prospect at one point because he does the voice of Batman for the animated movies. It would have been a great tie-in, and I thought it would be super fun too. But unfortunately, that didn’t work out, and I thought it would be super fun too. But unfortunately, that didn’t work out.
For those unaware, Jensen Ackles already has some Batman experience under his belt from voicing the character in the two-part Batman: The Long Halloween and Legion of Super-Heroes. He also voiced Jason Todd, a.k.a. Red Hood, in Batman: Under the Red Hood. So it certainly would have been a big deal had Gotham Knights been able to secure Ackles for a Batman appearance, as he would have been one of the few actors to play the character in both animation and live-action. Adam West accomplished this when he vocally reprised his Bright Knight version of Batman in the animated movies Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders and Batman vs. Two-Face, and Kevin Conroy, who passed away last November, appeared in The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event as Earth-99’s Bruce Wayne after more than two decades of voicing Batman in animated projects and video games.
As pointed out though, should Gotham Knights score a second season, maybe there’ll be an opportunity to squeeze a Jensen Ackles-played Batman into that story, whether it’s through flashbacks, because Bruce Wayne’s death was faked, it’s a clone of Bruce, etc. I’m now also remembering when Batwoman cast Warren Christie to play Tommy Elliot, a.k.a. Hush, while he was masquerading as Bruce. Meanwhile, when it comes to a potential role Jared Padalecki could play on Gotham Knights (when he’s not busy working of fellow CW series Walker, of course), Misha Collins joked that because of his height, Padalecki could play The Penguin on stilts.
Misha Collins’ other costars on Gotham Knights include naive Robinson as Carrie Kelley, Fallon Smythe as Harper Row, Tyler DiChiara as Cullen Row, Olivia Rose Keegan as Duela, Anna Lore as Stephanie Brown and Rahart Adams as Brody March. We’ll also see Hellraiser’s Doug Bradley appear in the sixth episode as Joe Chill, the man who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents. Gotham Knights premieres Tuesday, March 14 at 9 pm ET, and if you’re curious about what other shows premiere soon, take a look at our 2023 TV schedule.
