Terry McGinnis, the Batman of the future, will be depicted as half Asian in Sean Morphy's upcoming limited series Batman: Beyond the White Knight.
"The trick with Terry for me was how to make him a little different," Murphy told Screen Rant. "I didn't want to just mirror exactly what happened with the Batman Beyond cartoon series. I wanted to make it unique, but sort of familiar at the same time. One of the things I really wanted to do is make him half Asian. I didn't realize this, but a ton of people -- including myself -- always assumed Terry was half Japanese, and half Irish, or something. Only because there's so much kanji in Neo-Gotham, and he has long, black, straight hair... like, a lot of people mistake him as being half Asian. Even though both of his parents are like, extremely white."
Previously, Murphy shared images on Instagram showing his Terry design and announcing his intentions to tweak the character's race. In the world of Beyond the White Knight, the future Batman's mother is Asian and his father Irish.
"Maybe it's just window dressing, and it doesn't really affect story that much, but I just thought it was an interesting way to break out my Terry from the other Terrys out there," Murphy said. "And obviously to diversify the line, which is important.”
In the original Batman Beyond animated series, Terry's ethnicity is never explicitly defined. The final episode of Justice League Unlimited's Season 2, "Epilogue," reveals that while Terry was born to Warren and Mary McGinnis, he is a genetic "clone" of Bruce Wayne and the result of an elaborate scheme by government agent Amanda Waller to create a futuristic Batman with all of Bruce's biological prowess. In what was eventually dubbed "Project Batman Beyond," Waller collected Bruce Wayne's DNA from crime scenes, mixed the samples with a nanotech solution, and injected the formula into Warren McGinnis. Terry grew up without knowing his origins until an aged Waller confessed the conspiracy to him.
Batman: Beyond the White Knight continues Sean Gordon Murphy's take on the Batman mythos, which began in 2017 with White Knight and continued in 2019 with Curse of the White Knight. Over the course of both stories, Murphy's Batman confronted a reformed Joker who became a politician, clashed with Azrael, gave away his extensive fortune, and turned himself in to the police, admitting that his escapades as the Dark Knight had caused major harm to Gotham over the decades. Beyond the White Knight picks up where these story threads left off, a decade into the future.
Written and illustrated by Sean Murphy with colors by Dave Stewart, the first issue of Batman: Beyond the White Knight goes on sale March 29.
Source: Screen Rant, Instagram