The animated two-part adaptation of beloved DC comic, Batman: The Long Halloween, has now reportedly received an official rating of PG-13 from the MPA. The animated feature was given the rating for all the good stuff that it’s going to include, such as “Violence, bloody images, language and some smoking.” Many of DC’s animated adaptations have been given this rating, with the movies refusing to shy away from some of the more adult-oriented themes that feature in the comic book source material.
Announced out of DC FanDome this past summer, the two-part Batman: The Long Halloween will adapt Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s influential comic arc, which was first published in the late 90s. Taking place during the Dark Knight’s early days of crime-fighting, The Long Halloween sees the vigilante tackle several iconic members of his extensive rogue’s gallery, including Scarecrow, the Joker, Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler.
The official synopsis for Batman: The Long Halloween reads; “Christmas. St. Patrick’s Day. Easter. As the calendar’s days stack up, so do the bodies littered in the streets of Gotham City. A murderer is loose, killing only on holidays. The only man that can stop this fiend? The Dark Knight. In a mystery taking place during Batman’s early days of crime fighting, Batman: The Long Halloween is one of the greatest Dark Knight stories ever told.
“Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant James Gordon, Batman races against the calendar as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month. A mystery that has the reader continually guessing the identity of the killer, this story also ties into the events that transform Harvey Dent into Batman’s deadly enemy, Two-Face.”
Batman: The Long Halloween will star the voice talents of Troy Baker, Jensen Ackles, Naya Rivera, Titus Welliver and David Dastmalchian. With a rating now in place, expect the marketing to ramp up very soon.
The story will heavily influence the upcoming live action outing, The Batman, with director Matt Reeves previously hinting at The Long Halloween’s influence on his work. “It’s very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale,” Reeves said of his take on the Caped Crusader. “It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional. It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime, it’s going to allow his character to have an arc so that he can go through a transformation.”
The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as the title character, with the rest of cast including the likes of Zo&ë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as Riddler, Colin Farrell as Penguin, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson and Jeffery Wright as Commissioner Gordon, and is scheduled to hit theaters on March 4th 2022.
Batman: The Long Halloween meanwhile will be released later this year, with Part One reportedly arriving sometime in Summer 2021, followed by Part Two sometime in Fall 2021. This comes to us from Bloody Disgusting.com