Netflix’s Batman Beyond Remake Could Be DC’s Next Goldmine — And Finally Explain Why Bruce Timm Hated It

Every few months, the Bat-signal gets pointed at Batman Beyond again, and I get why. If you grew up in the 90s or early 2000s, Terry McGinnis swooping through Neo-Gotham was appointment TV. Now there are fresh whispers that Netflix wants in on the action in a big way. So let’s unpack what’s actually being said, why fans are buzzing, and what a revival could look like if the stars line up.

The rumor mill: Netflix, Warner Bros., and a big swing

Here’s the scuttlebutt: a Bloomberg report making the rounds claims Netflix recently made a major bid to buy Warner Bros. Studio. That same chatter mentions a second round of bidding that also involved the Paramount-Skydance camp. That is... a lot. To be clear, none of this is official, and some of the reporting blends several corporate storylines at once, which makes it hard to parse. But the idea fueling the fandom right now is simple: if Netflix ends up with the keys to some Warner Bros. toys, maybe they dust off Batman Beyond and bring it back.

Why Batman Beyond still hits

Batman Beyond premiered on January 10, 1999 with a two-part opener called 'Rebirth' (Parts I and II). It jumps decades into Gotham’s future, where a worn-down Bruce Wayne mentors a teen named Terry McGinnis who stumbles into the suit and the job. It started on Kids WB with a lighter Saturday-morning feel, then steadily tilted darker as it found its voice.

The show worked because it felt personal and messy in a way Batman usually doesn’t. Terry’s a high school kid trying to juggle rage, a girlfriend, and a chip on his shoulder. He gets in over his head. He loses fights. He grows. Contrast that with the surgically precise bruiser from Batman: The Animated Series and you see why this one stuck to people’s ribs.

The wild part: the show invented Terry, then the comics followed

Terry McGinnis didn’t come from the comics. He debuted on the show first. DC published a Batman Beyond comic in March 1999, but the character and the world were born in the writers room, not on the page, and the team had almost no runway to figure it out.

'Once I came around on it, we had to hit the ground running. We had no time to develop the show. And we were still finishing up 'The New Batman Adventures.' So we were doing two shows at the same time. We didn't have scripts, we didn't have characters, we hadn't done any of the world building yet. It was a mad dash. We were making stuff up on the fly'

That was producer Bruce Timm in a 2020 IGN chat, basically admitting they built Neo-Gotham at breakneck speed while also finishing another series. If anyone revives it now, the writers and animators won’t be stuck building a universe and a schedule at the same time, which is promising.

If Netflix actually did this... what then?

Setting aside the M&A chessboard for a second, a Batman Beyond revival makes a lot of sense creatively. The blueprint is there, the fanbase is still loud, and we’ve seen how a smart legacy sequel can pop. Disney+ just turned X-Men '97 into a new-school hit without ditching the stuff people loved. You can imagine a similar approach here: keep Terry and Old Man Bruce front and center, tap into the show's moody future-noir vibe, and take the time the original crew didn’t have to plan the world more deeply.

The bigger swing: a DC Animated Universe comeback

This is where things get extra wonky. People aren’t just dreaming about Batman Beyond; they’re imagining a full DC Animated Universe glow-up if Netflix gains access to Warner Bros. animation staples. The original DCAU run is still a gold standard for serialized superhero storytelling, from Batman: The Animated Series through Justice League. If a platform wants a prestige animation corner overnight, reviving that ecosystem would do it.

• Batman: The Animated Series (1992) - has rotated onto Netflix in recent licensing windows
• Superman: The Animated Series (1996) - available on Max
• Batman Beyond (1999) - available on Max
• Justice League (2001) - has shown up on Netflix in some recent windows

Where things really stand

Bottom line: talk of Netflix buying a big chunk of Warner Bros. Studio is unconfirmed and muddled with other ongoing industry dealmaking. But the idea of a Batman Beyond revival is not crazy, and it’s absolutely the kind of IP swing a streamer would brag about. If it happens, I just hope they keep Terry’s vulnerability, Bruce’s growly mentorship, and the future-shock mood that made the original special. The sleeker the batsuit, the more human the kid inside needs to be.

If you want to revisit it right now, Batman Beyond is streaming on Max (the service formerly known as HBO Max).