Batman ‘66 stars to reprise roles for 50th anniversary movie

Who is the definitive onscreen Batman? Michael Keaton? Christian Bale? Kevin Conroy?

A strong case could be made for any one of them. For some fans, though, no one will ever be able to take the place of Adam West, the star of the campy 1960s Batman TV series,

West was not the first actor to play Batman and his billionaire alter ego Bruce Wayne. By the time he donned the cowl in 1966, six other actors had already played the Caped Crusader, beginning with Lewis Wilson in 1943’s “The Batman.” However, West managed to leave an indelible mark on the character, becoming the Batman for generations of TV audiences.

Now, to commemorate the show’s 50th anniversary, West, along with his co-star, Burt Ward (aka Robin), will reprise their career-defining roles, voicing the characters in a new animated movie.

The news comes from West and Ward themselves, who spilled the beans last weekend during a Q&A session at the Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ward told fans they “can look forward to a new animated ‘Batman’ full-length, 90-minute feature, coming out on the 50th anniversary.” Assuming he doesn’t just mean the anniversary year, that would put its release date on Jan. 12, 2016.

The Batman TV series has seen something of a resurgence recently following the settlement of a longstanding legal feud between Warner Bros. (which owns Batman publisher DC) and 20th Century Fox concerning rights to the TV show.

Since then, Warner Bros. has released the entire series on Blu-ray and begun to publish a monthly comic titled “Batman ‘66” that maintains the same over-the-top, colorful tone of the West version.

Given DC’s history of basing animated movies on specific comic books (i.e. “Batman: Year One,” “The Dark Knight Returns”), it’s possible that this new feature-length film could be based on one of the stories from the “Batman ’66” comic.

Speculation aside, one thing’s for certain, though: Ben Affleck is going to have his work cut out for him in “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” if he wants to be 2016’s best movie Batman.