DC’s new Batman: Death in the Family animated film will be interactive

Bill Cooney
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The next animated Batman movie will be the first to contain interactive storytelling features, allowing viewers to choose their own experience – and even kill Robin if they want.

Fans of the Dark Knight got some very good news on July 28, as the first trailer for the new “Death in the Family” animated Batman film was released by DC.

It won’t just be any regular movie though, as it will rely on viewers to make decisions throughout the story to affect its final outcome, similar to Black Mirror’s “Bandersnatch” on Netflix.

The story focuses on the death of Jason Todd, who became Robin after the departure of Dick Grayson, and his eventual transformation into the violent vigilante Red Hood.

Based on the trailer above, it seems like Todd’s life will be in viewers’ hands – quite literally, as there are different options to have Batman save him or not, each affecting which ending we’ll see after the choice has been made.

This most certainly won’t be the only choice we get during the film, but it was the only one shown off during the short trailer that premiered as part of the DC Showcase.

Interestingly enough, this fan-based story hearkens back to the actual Batman comics in the 80’s, when the “Death in the Family” story was first released. DC held a fan vote before the issue on whether or not Jason Todd should live or die, with the latter narrowly winning out and the character being killed off (as Robin, anyway).

“Death in the Family” is a classic Batman tale, and now fans will be able to make it their own.

With a story that’s more than 20 years old at this point, it will be very interesting to see how much DC will allow fans to affect the overall outcome of “Death in the Family,” or if it will still follow the same basic storyline – with a few added surprises based on our choices.

Maybe after all this time, we’ll finally get to see what would happen if Jason Todd hadn’t been handed a death sentence by Batman fans all those years ago, an outcome that’s been widely discussed and explored since. The only surefire way to find out though will be to watch “Death in the Family” when it releases on Blu-ray and Digital HD later  this Fall.