The Batmobile Is Getting Its Own TV Series

There’s a scene towards the beginning of 2018’s excellent Teen Titans Go! To The Movies where, after Robin and his friends have snuck into a movie premiere for Batman’s newest big screen adventure, they discover that basically everyone but Robin is getting a movie. As the teasers play, the increasingly furious Robin watches as Alfred gets his own Dark Knight style reinvention, the Batmobile gets its own movie, and worst of all, even the Utility Belt is getting a spinoff.

“Ah, they did the car before you, bro!” teases Cyborg.

This is all a long wind-up for the news that, along with TV series focusing on Batman’s butler (Pennyworth) and a second TV series focusing on the Gotham City Police Department (Matt Reeves’ untitled Gotham PD spinoff of The Batman), Batman’s greatest ally will finally get its own chance to shine: a new preschool animated series titled Batwheels is coming to Cartoon Network and HBO Max, and it’ll star the Batmobile. Yes, really.

“Batwheels is the perfect show to headline our new foray into preschool,” said Tom Ascheim, President, Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics (GKYAC) via press release. “I can’t wait for all the aspiring super heroes out there to meet this whole new batch of crime-fighters.”

To be clear, this is not a gritty origin story of the Batmobile in the vein of Gotham: it’s for kids. Created by the Batcomputer, the main car-achters (get it??) in the series are essentially children, though they do team up with the human vigilantes who ride them. They include: Bam (The Batmobile), Bibi (The Batgirl Cycle), Red (The Redbird), Jett (The Batwing) and Buff (The Bat Truck).

Describe as an “aspirational series,” the sentient crime-fighting vehicles will defend Gotham City from villains along with the Bat-family, and other DC Super Heroes.

batwheels
Photo: Warner Bros.

“From Batman: The Animated Series to Teen Titans Go!, superhero storytelling has definitely been one of our superpowers here at Warner Bros. Animation,” said Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. “We are so excited to bring that expertise over to the preschool space and take something that all kids love, cool vehicles, and give it a turbo boost with Batman!”

If this sounds like a mix between Paw Patrol, Cars, and Batman… That’s the point. Take three massively successful franchises with kids, and create a new outlet to sell toys and products? It’s basically a license to print money, something Batman probably has somewhere in his utility belt.

Batwheels is produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Sam Register (Looney Tunes Cartoons) serves as executive producer. Michael G. Stern (Doc McStuffins) serves as co-executive producer, Simon J. Smith (Baymax Dreams) is supervising producer and Steven Fink of Bang Zoom Ltd. is producer.

No premiere date has been announced for Batwheels other than “coming soon,” though it will also debut globally on Cartoon Network, as well as domestically on Cartoon Network and HBO Max.