Warner Bros. Animation wrapped up its shared universe of movies with ‘Justice League Dark: Apocalypse War’, and it seems it isn’t looking back. The upcoming Batman animated movie is a completely original story and takes the Caped Crusader back to the 1970s for a kung-fu-flavored action flick, entitled ‘Batman: Soul of the Dragon’.
And in keeping with this fresh start, the voice cast is all-new. ‘Grimm’ star David Giuntoli is the latest actor to take on the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne. He was most recently seen on the ABC series ‘A Million Little Things’. In the story, Batman must team up with three of his former martial arts “classmates.”
Mark Dacascos provides the voice of Richard Dragon. Dacascos is an actual martial artist and actor, having starred most recently in ‘One Night in Bangkok’. He also starred in the Netflix action series ‘Wu Assassins’, on ‘Hawaii Five-O’ and in last year’s hit ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’, among his many credits. He may also be recognized as the host of ‘Top Chef America’.
Kelly Hu costars as Lady Shiva. Hu is an accomplished voice performer, and she actually voiced Lady Shiva in the video game ‘Batman: Arkham Origins’. She may also be remembered for playing another comic book “Lady,” Lady Deathstrike in ‘X2: X-Men United’. Among her other voice credits are ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, ‘Archer’, ‘Stretch Armstrong & the Flex Fighters’, ‘Young Justice’, and the upcoming ‘Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe’. In live-action, fans may recognize her as another DC character, China White from ‘Arrow’.
Michael Jai White provides the voice of Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger, a character that he played in live-action on ‘Arrow’. He previously voiced Doomsday on ‘Justice League’, Green Lantern (John Stewart) in the video game ‘Justice League Heroes’, and Tattooed Man on ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’. White also starred in the live-action movie, ‘Black Dynamite’ which was turned into an animated series.
The cast also includes James Hong as O-Sensei and Josh Keaton as Jeffrey Burr.
Bruce Timm is executive producing, and Sam Liu is directing and producing. The script is by Jeremy Adams.
‘Batman: Soul of the Dragon’ will be released next year.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
