Actor Winston Duke is gearing up to portray the Dark Knight in Batman Unburied, an upcoming narrative podcast.
Duke will be joined by an Alfred played by Jason Isaacs, whose many film roles include Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise. As for Duke, he won acclaim as M'Baku in Black Panther and the Avengers movies and starred as Gabe Wilson in Jordan Peele's Us.
Created as a partnership between DC and Spotify, the Batman Unburied podcast will feature a dark psychological take on Batman and his rogues gallery. The podcast is executive produced by David S. Goyer, the screenwriter for multiple Batman films, including the entirety of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
According to Spotify, the Bruce Wayne of Batman Unburied will differ from the versions already portrayed in film and on the printed page. "When audiences meet Bruce Wayne, he is a forensic pathologist, working in the bowels of Gotham Hospital and tasked with examining the victims of The Harvester, a gruesome serial killer preying on Gotham’s citizens," the company confirmed. "Not only will the superhero be forced to face his own mental demons, but he will also have to overcome them in order to save the citizens of Gotham as his alter ego Batman."
In February, Goyer called Batman Unburied an intriguing opportunity to explore the Dark Knight in a new medium. "I've been fortunate to have had a hand in shaping how audiences see Batman, and now it's really fun to have a hand in shaping how audiences hear Batman," he said. "With Batman Unburied, we're going to be doing a deep dive into Batman's unconscious mind, into his dream state." He also noted the podcast would feature surround sound to emphasize the surreal creepiness of Batman's villains, and DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee explained that the project would explore the "suspense thriller side" of Batman.
This is the first of several planned Spotify collaborations featuring DC characters, including Catwoman and Katana, after DC and Spotify signed a multi-year licensing deal in June 2020. "This is a long-term partnership between Warner Bros., DC and Spotify, and I think the fan base is going to respond to this in an exciting way and embrace it as something new and novel that supplements all the other ways they take in the DC Universe," Lee said.
Batman Unburied is expected to release later this year.
Source: Spotify