Following-up the success of feature film Merry Little Batman is the new series Bat-Fam. 10 episodes of animated adventures of Bruce Wayne and his son Damian premiere Monday Nov. 10 on Prime Video. Executive Producer and Showrunner Mike Roth talks working with Luke Wilson, pleasing the Bat-Fans, and seeing Tim Burton and Michael Keaton’s first collab in theaters. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: You’ve been doing a lot of promotion for the series, including at New York Comic Con. I was there for a day. How was New York Comic Con for you?

Mike Roth: Amazing. (laughs) I’m a big cinephile and nerd myself, so it’s really fun to be amongst my own. And it was fun to see all the enthusiasm. Batman always has a lot of enthusiasm. I actually did two panels. One was strictly just Batman and one was for “Bat-Fam”. And it’s always fun to see the enthusiasm for Batman and for this property.

JM: Oh yeah. There’s so many fans… of different generations. Does that add to the pressure? You’ve got so many different generations to please, and some grew up with certain iterations of the Batman saga.

MR: Yeah. Anytime you’re working on anything, there’s always a little bit of anxiety. I remember one time a student asked me… this is going back years… “Is there ever a moment where you’re not nervous anymore?” Every time you pick up the pencil there’s always a little bit of that artistic frustration of, “Oh boy. Now it’s time to perform.” So that doesn’t ever completely go away. We’re just really excited for everybody to see this, and I think it’s gonna be really fun.

JM: The movie [“Merry Little Batman”] came out at the end of 2023 on Prime Video. Did very well. Were the wheels already turning about doing a series? Was it already in the works? Was that always the hope for you? How did “Bat-Fam” exactly come about?

MR: We had kind of humble beginnings. We just wanted to make a movie — and hopefully get it picked up and greenlit. But as we were kind of digging into that story and into this property, I think there was a really strong desire from everyone, from the artists to the executives to Amazon… “What else can we do with this?” This is a really fun world and we just [wanted] to do a bigger dive into it.

JM: I love in the first episode of “Bat-Fam” how… The show takes place after the events of “Merry Little Batman”… so young Damian is so enthusiastic about what he accomplished in “Merry Little Batman”, and he can’t wait to tell everyone he meets about it in fun little ways. That’s what every kid does: when you do something exciting, you wanna tell everybody about it.

MR: Yeah. A hundred percent. Totally agree.

JM: That enthusiasm. Are you inspired by kids in your own life?

MR: Inspired by my own kids. Inspired from my own life. I always say there’s a little bit of me in Bruce Wayne. I think there’s also a little bit of me in Damian too. (laughs) In some ways I never really grew up. So much of the property in a lot of ways is grounded from real life. We sort of look at our own lives and use those experiences as clues [for] what to put into the characters. So for Damian, that enthusiasm, hopefully it feels authentic and real for everybody. And my own kids and other team members on the crew… their own personal lives, and we take those experiences and put them into the characters.

JM: That’s great. We have new characters that join the show: Alicia, Clare [and] the creation of this family. And family is so important. Family is so important in the saga of DC with different families, superhero teams that really become families. How did you want to fully embrace the theme of family?

MR: We took pages from our own personal life and put them in. One of the things that was really interesting with this Batman is seeing a more domesticated Bruce. And what does it look like for him raising an eight-year-old son? And his son is going to school, and his son has class field trips, and his son is getting grades. And also if we expand that family out and we bring in Ra’s Al Ghul and Man-Bat and other members into that family, how does this Bruce navigate all that? This very methodical, very practical, unbending guy who’s Batman. What does he look like as a dad? And I think there’s a lot of inherent humor in that too. Love bringing this family to life.

JM: There’s humor in what Luke Wilson does with his voice performance, and I love in that episode you were mentioning about the field trip that Bruce comes up with a very quick way… that he’s able to get onto that school field trip. You gotta have a sharp mind to be Batman, and I’m sure in working with Luke Wilson, you’re putting your heads together as far as how to make this character — this version of Bruce Wayne / Batman as good as he can possibly be.

MR: Working with Luke is great. We got so lucky there. It’s such a great casting choice because Luke can bring all that comedy and charm, as well as the kind of more stoic approach to Bruce that’s always needed, ’cause that is who Bruce is. Luke did an amazing job delivering that comedy. That’s his bread and butter.

JM: There is a free-spirited energy to this show, but obviously when it comes to animation, it’s a lot of hard work. You’re balancing the fun and the hard work as you’re making this, creating a free-spirited energy that I feel is organic. Did you really feel that as you were making these episodes?

MR: Oh, a hundred percent. In the grind of production, there’s always moments [where] we’re just really focused on the production and the deadlines. But along the way when you get a moment to kind of sit back and breathe and look at it, you’re like, “Oh yeah, it’s really coming together. We really wanted something that felt like a natural family, so that families watching it can see themselves in there and identify with it. That’s a big part of the reason why so many episodes begin with just them sitting around the kitchen table, because that’s how so many people’s days begin. And there is a whimsicalness to that because out of that then comes a story. This character’s dealing with this or this character’s dealing with that. And then we get to see through the course of the episode them trying to overcome whatever that is — and then ultimately they put on the cape and the cowl and then they have to deal with that same moment but now while they’re fighting the worst of the worst rogues’ gallery. They’re saving Gotham at the same time.

JM: There’s an episode here where the gang goes to the movies, and you do a lot with that at the cinema. Do you have a favorite cinematic memory of going to one of the Batman movies?

MR: Oh my gosh. Going to see the Tim Burton “Batman” for the first time. The score and the visuals — and Michael Keaton did such an amazing job. That was a huge defining moment. I think I wore Batman stuff for like two years after that movie.