SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators Of Batman: The Killing Joke

Editor’s Note: Our writer Jason Sacks attended the press panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con intended to hype the new Batman: the Killing Joke animated film. He had planned to include a review of the film to go along with these interviews. However, Jason told our editors: “this movie is terrible. It’s wretched, painful, sexist fantasy that enforces male power dynamics and subservient females. Scene after scene shows our Batgirl as weak and lesser than every male. It’s offensive enough for Batman to obviously be more heroic than his young female counterpart, but civilian librarian Barbara is even shown in angles that present her as weaker than her peers. I haven’t gotten to the Joker’s appearance yet and I just want to stop watching this thing. I’m not sure I can write about this movie. It makes me want to cry in anger.”

Jason asked us to go ahead and run the videos that he and several other journalists took at the press roundtables in San Diego, which was conducted before the first formal press screening of the film. Note how apologetic many of the professionals are about their work on the film, while also showing their professionalism.

If you’ve watched this film, we would love to hear your comments on it.

At this year’s San Diego Comic Con, our very own Jason Sacks sat down alongside critics from DC Comics News, Nerd For A Living, Fanbolt, and others for a series of roundtable interviews with the cast and creators of the controversial new animated adaptation, Batman: The Killing Joke! In attendance were Executive Producer Bruce W. Timm, Director Sam Liu, and Screenwriter Brian Azzarello, along with Ray Wise (Commissioner Gordon), Tara Strong (Barbara Gordon/Batgirl), and Bruce Wayne/Batman himself, Kevin Conroy.

Many thanks to Damian Fasciani from DC Comics News for sharing his video footage.