Batman Is Mexican Now, Get Ready For The Azteca Dark Knight’s New Movie
A new version of one of the best!
This article is more than 2 years old
There’s a new Batman movie on the way, but it isn’t exactly the same version of the Dark Knight you’re probably used to. The movie will feature a Mexican Batman, and he won’t be fighting to protect Gotham City, nor will he live in the 20th or 21st centuries. This new version of the hero will be on a quest for vengeance in the time of the Aztec Empire.
According to Deadline, HBO Max Latin America has ordered into production the upcoming animated feature Batman Azteca: Choque de Imperios, which translates to Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires. You can see a promotional image of the Mexican Batman below.
This Mexican version of Batman will be named Yohualli Coatl and, as it is in the case of the more familiar Bruce Wayne, it will be a tragic loss that inspires him to take on the Bat mantle. According to the official description of the film as presented by Deadline, Spanish Conquistadors will murder Yohualli’s father Toltecatzin. Unlike most of the portrayals of Batman’s origin set in more contemporary times, the death of Yohualli’s father means not just dire consequences for his own life, but for his entire civilization. He escapes to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan to warn King Montezuma, and he makes a home out of the temple of Tzinacan — a bat god. There, just as Bruce Wayne does, Yohualli trains himself in combat and develops devices in his quest to avenge his father.
The Mexican Batman will be voiced by Horacio Garcia Rojas (Narcos: Mexico). The film will be helmed by Juan Jose Meza-Leon, who previously directed eight episodes HBO Max’s animated series Harley Quinn. There isn’t any word on what other voice actors we can expect to appear in Batman Azteca, nor was a release date unveiled.
Before the inevitable cries of “woke Batman” start getting thrown out there, please consider something before joining others down that profoundly stupid road. The notion of transporting the Dark Knight to another time and another culture is not even remotely new. In 1989 Brian Augustyn, Mike Mignola (creator of Hellboy), and P. Craig Russell transplanted the story of Bruce Wayne to the 19th century with Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. The story was adapted to an animated film in 2018. The 2003 mini-series Superman: Red Son featured a Batman who was a Russian anarchist. That story was also made into an animated movie that premiered in 2020. In 1998’s Tangent Comics: Batman #1 readers were introduced to Sir William — a Batman who once served King Arthur. So if you had no problem with any of those time/place transplants, but you have a problem with a Mexican Batman, it arguably says more about you than it does about Batman Azteca.
Batman Azteca is just one of a growing number of Batman-related projects on HBO Max. Along with films first screened in theaters like this year’s The Batman, there’s Titans (which features a number of spin-off Batman characters, and starred Iain Glenn in a recurring role as Bruce Wayne) and the animated Harley Quinn series. There’s also the upcoming live-action Batgirl film in which Michael Keaton will reprise his role as Batman. Batgirl was originally announced as an HBO Max exclusive, though there is reportedly discussion of the flick going to theaters.
