AceShowbiz - Batman: The Animated Series officially concluded with the season 4 finale in 1995, but Batman's story gets a very different ending in a 2024 feature film. Kevin Conroy debuted as the voice of Batman back in 1992, when Batman: The Animated Series began. And immediately, his grit, and ability to deliver nuance in his voice performance cemented his legacy as The Dark Knight. And despite that original series only running for three years, Conroy would go on to voice Batman for decades, right up until his death in 2022.

With multiple generations of Batman fans growing up having Conroy's performance serve as their introduction to the hero, it makes sense that his last scene should hold significant weight. Thankfully, Conroy was working on a project that was able to provide that moment after his death. And today, it stands out as one of the most memorable and enduring endings for any version of the Caped Crusader.

In 1995, Batman: The Animated Series wrapped up its fourth and final season with the episode, "The Lion and the Unicorn". It's a fun episode, and it has its moments, but even in that season, it's not among the highest rated episodes. Fortunately, Batman's story goes on beyond this moment in Justice League Unlimited, a show that came out nearly a decade later in 2004. But once again, this series does not mark the end of Batman's story with Kevin Conroy serving as the iconic voice of the World's Greatest Detective.

That comes much later in a story that takes place in another universe altogether. Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three was released in 2024, two years after the death of Conroy. Technically, this marks the end of the Tomorrowverse, an animated franchise of DC stories that served as a spiritual successor to the DC Animated Universe, or DCAU. This is significant because the DCAU actually began with Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, before moving on to the Justice League Unlimited show, and kicking off a series of incredible animated feature films.

The Tomorrowverse continued this legacy, with several new castings and shifting away from the original stories that started it all. Still, this final entry, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three gave Batman the send-off he deserved, offering a sense of closure for Conroy's iconic character. As the Tomorrowverse comes to a close, fans of Batman: The Animated Series can appreciate the lasting impact of Kevin Conroy's performance, and the lasting legacy of the DC Animated Universe.