Batman and his extensive supporting cast are reimagined in a 1920s Lovecraftian vision of Gotham City for the latest DC Universe Original Animated Movie Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham. Adapting the comic book miniseries of the same name by Mike Mignola, Richard Pace, Troy Nixey, and Dennis Janke, the movie has Batman learn that an old god festering under Gotham City linked to its dark history is preparing to rise from its ancient tomb. As those around Bruce Wayne pay the ultimate price for this supernatural terror, the Dark Knight learns that his own family is connected to this threat while Bruce grapples with the deeper implications of his increasingly fragile sanity.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, screenwriter Jase Ricci discussed adapting Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham for the screen, explained several changes the animated movie makes to the comic book, and teased what fans can expect as the film comes to home video.

1920s Harvey Dent, Oliver Queen, and Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham.

CBR: Do you remember the first time you read Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham?

Jase Ricci: Yes, I'm going to ding my nerd credibility, but plus my honesty factor. I hadn't read it until I got asked to do this project. I'm a huge Batman and horror movie fan, and I really love Lovecraft books, but for some reason, it was a blind spot of mine. I had seen the cover before, and it was cool, so when [producer] Jim Krieg called me about it, I was like, "Yeah, that's awesome!" I remember going, "How are we going to make this into a movie?!" [laughs] That was my memory.

When you're adapting this story into a 90-minute movie, what were key elements and moments from the comic books that you knew you wanted to include in this?

That's the thing. The comic book is an embarrassment of riches. There is so much, and you don't want to let anything go. It's such an intricate plot, which is what Lovecraft is. The character arcs are uncomplicated, but the minutia has the devil in the details of a lot of that. That's why it's so scary, which was challenging. I knew the fight with the djinn was something that I wanted to bring. The first reveal of the giant old god frozen in ice was like something right out of At the Mountains of Madness.

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batman doom came to gotham rooftop

Conversely, what elements were you looking to update for modern audiences?

There were three areas that were really important to me to update. Most of it was to be a streamlined character story to Bruce Wayne and to compress and conflate some of the characters. That's why we used Oswald Cobblepot the way that we did but also the Thomas Wayne character. That was something I was excited to do, to bring him back as a ghost. If it's his father coming to talk to him, that's going to pack an emotional wallop that's going to send him over and make him go crazy. That's the guy that would do it, the father that he's revered his whole life -- that's someone we wanted to bring back.

Another area we deviated from the end of the book was the Guardians. In the book, when Batman goes to face Ra's al Ghul for the final battle, Batman fights these two werewolves. I love werewolves, but where were they before? We took out the werewolves and put in zombie versions of his old friends, which I think also rattles him and drives him closer to insanity.

A third thing is that Sam Liu and I were talking about the Robins [and] expanding them. The Kai Lee character was originally Tim Drake. Something from the book is that Batman has been traveling the world and accumulating these orphans, but when you look at the orphans he accumulated, they didn't seem like they came from around the world. It seemed like they came from England while Dick Grayson was from Gotham in the book, and we kept that. We wanted to make it feel like he found these children from ports around the world. That's where Kai Lee and Sanjay Tawd came from.

I think that was a nice addition, and the Kai Lee character I really responded to and connected to. I felt like her relationship with Oliver Queen, because we also built up his character from the book, was some of my favorite stuff to write. Oliver is a reflection of what Bruce was going through, which is always helpful to have in a Batman story because Batman does not vocalize what he's thinking a lot. To have other characters go through similar processes, you can mirror that in other characters' actions. They weren't huge because I wanted to stay faithful to the book, but those are some of the changes we, as a team, decided to bring to the movie.

batman doom came to gotham talia

Lovecraftian stories are full of protagonists who go mad after witnessing things beyond their comprehension. You include that in The Doom that Came to Gotham, but you're also dealing with an incredibly stoic protagonist in Batman. How was it navigating that tricky balance?

It was fun because I think that was inherent in this story. The thing about Batman that I think is so cool about this story is that he doesn't go crazy. He realizes he's crazy. He goes insane when he's eight years old and sees that monster. I'm not trying to make a commentary on any serious mental health issues. I'm speaking in strictly Lovecraftian terms of insanity. He lost his mind when he saw that old god when he was eight years old, and he's spent his whole life repressing it and denying it with science, logic, and reason.

That protected him from his insanity, but it also made it impossible for him to embrace what he had to do to beat the bad guy. He cannot win unless he embraces those things. That was a cool character thing and very difficult to do with a character like Batman because he doesn't speak, and there are so many other things going on. I know it's a very busy movie, and to me, that felt very Lovecraftian, where there are all these things going on.

The Book of Ra's is a one-for-one with the Necronomicon and stuff like that, and it was really cool. It lends itself to a rewatch, where you connect the dots. Not that it's a super complicated story, but there's some stuff you can catch going back in, like the book, and I think that's true for Lovecraftian literature as a whole.

Jase, what are you most excited about getting to share Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham with the world?

I'm excited to tell a Lovecraftian story with Batman in it. That's what I'm most excited about!

Directed by Sam Liu and Christopher Berkeley, Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham will be released on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital HD on March 28.