Following the events of the Merry Little Batman animated holiday film, the adventures of the father/son duo Batman and Little Batman, better known as Bruce and Damian Wayne, continue in the upcoming Bat-Fam series. Along with faithful butler Alfred, the latest DC animated show sees new additions to the Wayne Manor including Alfred’s free-spirited grandniece Alicia Pennyworth, de-aged and reformed supervillain Claire Sefton a.k.a. Volcana, Damian’s spectral grandfather Ra’s al Ghul, and the eccentric Man-Bat.
Ahead of the premiere of Bat-Fam on Prime Video next week, at New York Comic Con and through virtual interviews The Beat had the pleasure of chatting with some of the cast and crew including executive producer and showrunner Mike Roth as well as some of the voice cast including Yonas Kibreab (Damian Wayne/Little Batman), and Haley Tju (Claire/Volcana), London Hughes (Alicia Pennyworth), Michael Benyaer (Ra’s Al Ghul), and Bobby Moynihan (Man-Bat).
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Taimur Dar: After hearing Bobby Moynihan compare Man-Bat to Urkel and describe him as the “weird uncle” it dawned on me that the dynamics of this Bat-Fam animated series is very much like a classic family sitcom, specifically shows like Addams Family or The Munsters. I’d love to know if those shows or any others influenced the series?
Mike Roth: It’s definitely something we talked about. Addams Family came up. Munsters came up a little bit. At one point, there was an idea early on of Man-Bat being the dragon [from the Munsters] that lived under the stairs and pops out occasionally making crazy noises. That iteration of him was a much more feral bat. But yeah, absolutely. One of the things, in my humble opinion, that’s successful about the show is it is eclectic with lots of family sitcoms. We found inspiration from all types of family sitcoms. Addams Family is definitely one of them. I think there’s a hint of Full House in there. [Laughs]. That’s part of what makes it fun.
Taimur Dar: Though popular among comic readers, Damian Wayne is a relatively new character, debuting over twenty years ago, who isn’t known by the general public. Did you have any familiarity with Damian Wayne before landing the role?
Yonas Yibreab: I wasn’t too familiar but I’ve gotten to know him a bit. When I did get this role I did do my research and homework, even though I hate doing homework. I looked at different YouTube videos and reading different articles online. He’s great.
Taimur Dar: Ra’s al Ghul is definitely a major Batman villain from the comics. People who aren’t steeped in comics probably know the character from film and TV as portrayed by various actors like Liam Neeson. Going into Bat-Fam, what was your prior familiarity with Ra’s al Ghul?
Michael Benyear: Ten to fifteen years ago, I was hanging out with one of my best buddies in LA and out of the blue one day he said to me, “You’re going to play Ra’s al Ghul.” I said, “I don’t know who that is.” “You’re not familiar? He’s this supervillain in Batman.’ [Ra’s al Ghul] was created in 1971 in the comic books. I was familiar with the Batman show in ’66 which ended before then so I wasn’t really reading the comic books anymore. [My friend said], “You’d be perfect for it. You look like the guy.” A couple of years later they do the movie with Liam Neeson. So I realized the role was taken and I wasn’t going to get to do it. A couple of years ago, I get the email with this description and I said, “I am going to play this part and my buddy predicted it correctly.” I Googled and saw that there were different variations and backgrounds.
Taimur Dar: It’s no exaggeration to say that London’s standup comedy like her Netflix special is decidedly adult. Was working on a children’s animated series like Bat-Fam a different experience?
London Hughes: Honestly, it’s not. Before my special, I was doing children’s TV in the UK. My first ever TV gig was the introducing the cartoons on the BBC when I was nineteen. I’d do little sketches and make characters. It’s very natural for me to be the woman who can talk about “sex” and also a woman who can entertain children. I’m the type of girl who can do it all. It wasn’t hard. This was my first time doing voiceover. That was the hardest part. The comedy comes naturally. The voiceover part was hard. I was acting alone with no one else in the booth. Keeping up the energy and the performance when it’s just you acting to a stick figure was challenging but I loved doing it. There were times I tried to say swear words and they said, “You cannot blaspheme.” There were times I tried to slip in a few swear words but couldn’t.
Taimur Dar: Guiding the performances are voice directors Kristi Reed and Carrie Keranen. Many of you have previously worked with Kristi on other animated projects so I’d love to you hear experience working with her on this Bat-Fam animated series as well as Carrie?
Yonas Yibreab: They’re great. I don’t know if I met Carrie yet. I worked with Kristi. She’s fast-paced and knows what she wants.
London Hughes: Basically, there’s no wrong. They give you so much creative freedom that essentially you can comfortably try it this way or that way. They call me “One take London.” I don’t know what they call you, Yonas.
Yonas Yibreab: They call me “Pro-nas!”
London Hughes: I like to do it in one take. That’s my thing. I’d do my version and usually they would take that. There’s a lot of freedom and adlibbing and improv. Did you do any improv?
Yonas Yibreab: I did some. Sometimes they’d be like, “This isn’t working. Just try something.” There’s this one weird laugh that I did and it was really dumb. But they liked it and they kept using it over and over again.
Haley Tju: Kristi is awesome. What I love about her is that she’s really direct and to the point. There’s no fluff around things that she wants you to do it a certain way. She knows how to communicate so well. I love the directness.
Bobby Moynihan: She’s a fantastic voice director. I love working with her because she makes me ten times better. She was on We Bare Bears too. I’ve been lucky enough to work with her and she has taught me more about this business than a lot of people. She’s really, really good at what she does.
Mike Roth: I concur. Kristi is amazing. I’ve worked with Kristi for years. One of the challenges for our property was having this amazing cast who are so busy. You can imagine how busy Luke [Wilson] is. We got to a spot where Luke and Kristi were really busy. When Kristi wasn’t available she said, “I have this friend Carrie who’s really great.” [Carrie] did a lot of the recording that we have with Luke. That worked really well because she has an acting background. I think that was a great team. They’re both great and amazing.
Taimur Dar: Michael, though your working relationship with Kristi doesn’t go as far back as the others, I believe she directed you on the Curses! animated series. How did this Bat-Fam project compare?
Michael Benyear: You’ve done your research! In the last few years, especially the era of COVID, we record auditions privately and send them in. We get to the studio and most times we don’t interact with anybody. They are sometimes on a Zoom call. Kristi Reed is very successful. When I went to do Curses!, it was a Persian monster, the Manticore. When I auditioned I did it with a Persian accent and with a generic monster accent. When I got there everybody was on Zoom. I was in a studio by myself. I did all of my stuff in thirty minutes. I’ll never forget that. She said, “Thank you.” I did not meet her in person. When I was cast in Bat-Fam, I got there and Kristi said, “We worked together on Curses!.” It still hadn’t aired at that point. I guess I made a good impression with her when I worked with her for thirty minutes on the Zoom call. She’s been so great directing this show. Mike Roth, the showrunner, was also in the booth.
Taimur Dar: I’m tempted to assume you recorded your parts individually but I’m curious if you recorded at home or were you able to go into the studio?
Haley Tju: That’s also a great question because there was a show that I did completely in the pandemic and we recorded the entire thing separately at home. With this one, we did record it separately but I got to go into a studio. I recorded it in New York and I’m pretty sure everyone else recorded it in Los Angeles.
Yonas Kibreab: Same. Maybe for Merry Little Batman I think I did a few at home but other than that mostly in the studio.
Taimur Dar: Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump is the composer for Bat-Fam. Obviously, he was the composer for the Merry Little Batman movie, but he’s no stranger to the character having performed the song “Who’s the (Bat)Man” from the LEGO Batman movie. I don’t know if you were a fan of his music or Fall Out Boy prior to working with him, but what was the experience having Patrick Stump involved in Bat-Fam?
Mike Roth: There are so many things for this property that are a dream come true. Working with Batman. Working with a talented person like Patrick. It’s interesting because the way we went about finding composers is they did tests. And then they sent us those test. We listened to them without the names attached. We just listened to who did the best score with no influence of who did it. Patrick’s was unbelievably good. That was from the movie [Merry Little Batman]. To have him come back for the series, we couldn’t ask for anything better. He’s super talented and super easy to work with. And we were just super lucky to have him. And I was a huge fan of Fall Out Boy. Who isn’t? [Laughs].
Taimur Dar: I love the opening title sequence both the music and the animation. It very much captures the experience of going through a comic. What went into it?
Mike Roth: That’s exactly what it was supposed to feel like, going through a comic. From the movie to the series, this idea of bringing illustrations or a comic to life has always been part of the DNA of the property. Damian is a little bit inspired by Calvin and Hobbes. Obviously, a lot of inspiration from Ron Searle. Even in the series, there are moments when characters will accentuate a word and that word actually appears like a comic. That’s very built into the DNA and that’s how we wanted to introduce the series. You’re basically looking at a comic coming to life. I’m glad that you saw that because that was what we wanted the takeaway to be.
Taimur Dar: Before working on Bat-Fam, did you watch the Merry Little Batman movie to get a feel for the tone and style of the property?
Michael Benyear: Because this show had done the movie first, I was able to watch that before doing the audition so I got the sense of the tone and style and look. If you have a keen eye, Ra’s’ painting is in the background of Wayne Manor in the movie which is what inspired them to do the character in the series. I’m very thankful to whoever put that Easter egg in there because now I get to play Ra’s.
Taimur Dar: There are so many great gags and Easter eggs. One of my favorites is Man-Bat wearing a Ben Cooper inspired Batman costume. Is there an Easter egg from the series that’s your personal favorite or one that fans should look out for?
Mike Roth: That’s probably my favorite one, to be honest with you. The fact that Alicia’s name is Alicia [in reference to actress Alicia Silverstone from Batman & Robin]. I’ll be interested to see which ones the fans pick up on. Probably my favorite Easter egg is in the movie. Carmine Infantino is in the movie. We did a caricature of him and he’s holding a coffee cup in the toy store. He gets hit by Damian and goes, “Oh terrific.” That’s actually Carmine Infantino’s voice. I knew Carmine. That’s my all-time favorite Easter egg of any Batman property I’ve ever seen. [Laughs].
Taimur Dar: When actors take on superhero roles, there’s always the question of how much you look at the source material. Volcana is unique in that despite debuting thirty years ago in animation before making the jump to comics, there isn’t that much for the character. Was that freedom of not being bound by prior depictions something you appreciated as an actor to make Volcana your own?
Haley Tju: Totally. It’s a lot of pressure taking on a character from the DC Universe. They are all so iconic. I had no idea who she was coming into this but I learned so much about her. I do think she’s one of my favorite characters. I’m so glad we get to continue her story. It definitely allowed me to have much more room to play which was refreshing and nice.
Taimur Dar: This version of Ra’s al Ghul is certainly different from previous iterations. His vibe is something between Dracula or Grandpa Munster. How was the character described to you and what influenced your performance?
Michael Benyear: It was a lengthy description, which I latched onto, “Although he is a retired supervillain, the head of the League of Shadows, he’s still a loving grandfather to Damian.” I did know about Talia al Ghul who is his daughter, and villain as well, and mother of Damian. It stressed that he’s grappling with having to put up with his son-in-law [Batman] to be nice and being a loving grandfather to Damian. I loved all of those things in one. I also loved the fact that he was kind of ageless in the sense that not only was he not a certain number, but he had lived through many centuries. Like Highlander, he’s a guy who’s lived through various eras. I wanted to have an accent which could be from anywhere. There is a vibe like you’re saying of a vampire. He’s Middle Eastern but not Bela Lugosi.
Taimur Dar: In addition to Damian, Yonas also voices young Bruce Wayne in a brief flashback sequence. Even though you’re not changing your voice, you make young Bruce distinct from Damian. How did you voice young Bruce differently from Damian?
Yonas Kibreab: I remember doing that but I don’t remember exactly what I did. They told me they wanted him to be like Damian so they can see young Bruce and Damian are very similar. I remember Kristi telling me to keep it like myself. It’s cool you saw a little bit of a difference.
Taimur Dar: Similarly, there’s a field trip episode that gave Haley an opportunity to voice a parent chaperone named Kelly Chen. It’s an incidental character with only a couple of lines but she made me laugh. How was it voicing a character so different from Volcana and the young girl roles you usually play?
Haley Tju: I’m so glad she thought that was funny. It was funny to play. I play a few random voices in the show. Usually it will be Kristi going, “Can you do this one too?” [It] was just me doing my best to try to emulate something that also didn’t sound like Claire. That’s one thing we had to make different. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. It really was just a random thing that came out. [Laughs].
Yonas Kibreab: I didn’t know that was you!
Taimur Dar: If you were to be cast in a project that was part of James Gunn’s DC Universe, what would be your dream role?
Michael Benyear: I’m not just saying this. I would love to play Ra’s al Ghul in live-action. [Laughs]. I really have an affinity for this character even before doing [Bat-Fam]. Now that I’ve been doing it for a couple of years, I feel this guy. I love it. If it wasn’t a comedy version, I could definitely play it more dramatic. I think I would always bring a little humor to it. If James is listening or reading, I would definitely love to play Ra’s al Ghul in the live-action DC Universe for sure.
Taimur Dar: Who would you rather have as your dad, Batman or Superman?
Haley Tju: Good question.
Yonas Kibreab: I’m sticking with Batman because Superman doesn’t have the dad bod and dad beard. It feels more like a dad.
Haley Tju: I agree. I love seeing Batman as a father to Damian and now Claire and basically everyone in the house. Luke Wilson does a perfect job of making him not only stoic that we all know but also the domesticated version. I’d love to have Batman as a dad! [Laughs].
Taimur Dar: Do you prefer Batman with or without a beard?
Michael Benyear: Well, I have a beard at certain times. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don’t. My mother always complained, “Why do you have a beard?” It’s much easier to shave and have no beard overnight than to grow one overnight. Maybe he’s trying to be more incognito so if someone recognizes him with the beard he can just shave it and then no one can know it was him. That’s just my two cents!
Bat-Fam premieres Monday November 10th on Prime Video.
