Good news, Batman fans: Long before Merry Little Batman hit Prime Video and became one of the most inventive animated holiday streaming films in recent years, its sequel series was already planned. “We’re working on a 22-minute action-comedy adventure called Bat-Family,” beamed Mike Roth, director of Merry Little Batman. “It’s all the same core characters that we’ve seen from this movie, but we’re expanding out the world — new villains, new places to go. We’re also expanding out the house [Wayne Manor], so there’s going to be more family members coming into the house, which is also very exciting for us.”

Watch this space for more details on the series premiere. In the meantime, Merry Little Batman is great viewing. The downright inventive outing is packed with favorite Batman villains like The Joker, Mr. Freeze, and many others. Starring Luke Wilson (as Batman), Yonas Kibreab (as Bat-son Damien), and James Cromwell (as Alfred), it offers an invigorating new take on Batman as it tracks young Damien’s madcap adventure to save Christmas in Gotham City.

In an exclusive MovieWeb interview, Mike Roth opened up about bringing the film to life and other Bat facts. Check out the video and interview highlights below.

Beyond the Bat Cave

Batman is an iconic DC Comics character. After 90 years, that’s no surprise. But Merry Little Batman gives us a Batman most audiences have never experienced before in a rare kind of adventure — filled with humor, too — that is enjoyable for the entire film. As Mike Roth shared:

We wanted to tell a Christmas story. It was really important to us. We were hoping to tell something that was perennial, that could come back every Christmas. That drove a lot of what we were building very early on.

“There are so many different types of Batman projects. They’re all a similar ilk,” continued Roth. “We wanted to see Batman in a slightly different lens, right? So instead of seeing that brooding presence of Batman, where he’s just always Batman-ing, and he’s like depressed, or what have you, it was like, what if he’s a dad? What if he’s in full dad mode? He has a beard, he has flannel, he has sneakers. Instead of a tuxedo. And what does that world look like for him? What would his son look like? It’s something different that you don’t normally see while still being tethered to the 90-year history that we all expect of Batman.”

Related: The 10 Greatest Batman Movies Ever Made (Live-Action and Animated), Ranked

The biggest surprise for Roth when he read the script by Morgan Evans and Jase Ricci — based on the characters created by Bob Kane — was that “it worked.” He appreciated how the story bent many creative Batman aspects into a new design, offering a completely different take on the caped crusader. The story finds Batman in full single-dad mode. An unexpected mission lures him away from Gotham. That’s when his young son Damien steps up and suddenly finds himself battling Gotham’s most notorious villains.

“It’s a very different voice for Batman with Luke Wilson,” Roth noted. “A lot of new chemistry came into this, but at its core, it’s still Batman, and that was always important to us. But now that it’s all assembled, it’s like, ‘Yeah, this is a really fun Christmas story and a Batman story, and it works.’”

On Those Bat Villains

The excitement of the design team is evident in Merry Little Batman. The Joker (David Hornsby) is even more dramatic and, well, Joker-y than we’ve ever experienced him before. There’s a fresh take on how The Penguin (Brian George) becomes part of the mix as Damien realizes the villains want to steal Christmas from Gotham. Poison Ivy (Therese McLaughlin) and Mr. Freeze (Dolph Adomian) camp it up here. It’s also great to experience Bane (Chris Sullivan) and Reid Scott’s take on the intrepid Commissioner Gordon.

“We wanted to see all these characters in this new filter,” Mike Roth explained. “And also, Damien going out into Gotham. All the [villains] in this Gotham are retired, but they’re all coming out of retirement. So, let’s see as many of them as we can. Let’s see all the classic ones and see them through these designs.”

Related: The Best Major Villains From Batman Movies, Ranked

Merry Little Batman has plenty of spunk. The great thing about the animated film is that it manages to maintain a high level of intrigue and excitement all the way until its final frame, often mixing humor and action.

When asked what audiences may not realize about what goes into directing an animated feature versus a live-action adventure, Roth said: “In the animation process, as a director, I draw. I’m still an artist, I’m still very much infused into all the aspects of the pipeline. So [the difference] it that I’m an artist, too.

“I just want to see as much of the Batman universe with this design filter as possible,” he added. “Going into the new series, we’re starting to explore that territory, and it’s really fun.”

Catch Merry Little Batman on Prime Video through the link below, and check out the trailer:

Watch on Prime Video