Star Trek’s William Shatner Played This Classic Batman Villain In A Forgotten Movie

William Dozier’s television series in 1966 “Batman” is a series of brilliant and sublime comedy, and could easily be one of the best ever made. His title of title (played by genius Adam West) and his acolyte Robin (Equal Genius Burt Ward) delivered their lines in an ultra-pasta manner which was clearly satire, but which has never made a wink or hinted at the public that they were in the joke. These were square jaw pillars that defended justice in the face of the anarchists of cartoons who represented counter-culture, sexuality or simply good old-fashioned pranks. Batman’s world was wide and ridiculous, and “Batman” presented a television series which in a way praised and ridiculed this universe.

The bad guys from Dozier’s show were generally played by well -considered actors who took the opportunity to detach themselves a little, or were professionals who work hard who liked to sink their teeth in awkward comic roles. The Joker was played by Cesar Romero and Le Penguin by Burgess Meredith. Julie Newmar was perfect in Catwoman, although Eartha Kitt is hardly left in the same role. George Sanders, Eli Wallach and Otto Preminger have all had a good time playing Mr. Freeze, and Victor Buono has always made me laugh as King Tut. Even Liberace played a villain – and his own twin brother – in a notable episode.

The member of the Batman Rogues gallery which was missing in the 1966 television series, however, was two facets: a man branched out in the middle, separated between evil and good. There were various reasons why Two-Face never presented itself in the Dozier show (in which we are going to enter below), but his absence always seemed to be a missed opportunity for fans of Batman. Fortunately, the problem was finally recruited in 2017 with the release of the animated film “Batman against Two-Face”, an animated film to look like the 1966 series, and with its original cast.

William Shatner was hired to play Two-Face.

“Batman against Two-Face” was actually a series of the 2016 animated film “Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders”. This film brought together Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar to resume their 50 years earlier roles. He tried to resume the aesthetics, tone and cheesy writing of Dozier’s television series, and has greatly succeeded. The cast seems a little older, but the mind is alive. In addition, because it was animated, the film could do things that the series on a low budget of 1966 could never. (History culminates with a fist fight at the top of an airship.)

“The return of the Caped Crusaders” was successful enough to justify the follow-up “Batman vs. Two-Face” the following year. West recorded all of its lines, but died before the film was released, making “Two-Face” His final project. Because Two-Face had never appeared on the original series, a new animated film was a golden opportunity to finally fill this particular pop culture gap. Shatner, as mentioned, played Harvey Dent, and the character was designed to look like Shatner in the 1960s. The character’s design, with a bright green-green face and an eggplant costume, was also what the character could have felt by using the makeup technology of the era 1966. “Batman vs. Two-face” is essentially a scenario developed anything, looked like the Dozier series.

The intrigue is an idiot of the 1960s, because it implies that Harvey Dent is splashed with liquid evil – a substance which, well, makes him evil. For the eternal credit of shast, he does not camp his role, but gives a complex and serious performance, by removing the duality of two facets and the moral decrease that he seems to live. He could easily have been a cackling monster, but his game is closer to “Batman: The Animated Series” than “Batman Forever”.

The film also presents a Harley Quinn cameo, although this character was invented until 1992, so she would not have been on the series of Dozier.

The story tells that Dozier and the producers of “Batman” worked to find a two -line script during the third season of the show (in difficulty). They loved Two-Face as a character, but his beginnings continued to be delayed because he could have been a little too strange and scary for a light series like “Batman”. He was, after all, completely marked on his left side. This did not really correspond to a series which was also Egghead (Vincent Price).

Harlan Ellison had even transformed a treatment, in which Harvey Dent was changed from a district prosecutor into a news presenter. In the treatment, two-face were marked not by chemicals, acid or liquid evil, but by an explosive projector. It was in 1968, and Clint Eastwood was considered for the roleAs he had recently played alongside Mr. Freeze Eli Wallach in “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. Unfortunately, the show was canceled before any movement could be done seriously, and Two-Face should remain a disappeared member of the perpetuity gallery. Shatner would not have been able to play as Two-Face in 1968, because he was still busy with “Star Trek”.

In 2017, however, Eastwood was a star too big to appear in an animated film “Batman”. Shatner, however, was very playing and played an incredibly good role in the role. We can already imagine an episode “Batman”, produced in 1968 or ’69, with William Shatner as Two-Face, so the 2017 animated film has a certain degree of creative logic.

Fun anecdotes: a character named Luclee Diamond appears in “Batman against Two-Face”, and she is played by Lee Meriwether, who played Catwoman in front of West in the 1966 “Batman” feature film. She appeared alongside, West, Ward and Newmar. If it was the last performance of Batman from West, it was an excellent thing to go out.