Powerless: Don’t Expect Batman

You probably won’t be seeing the Caped Crusader appear on Powerless

Powerless is the first comedy based in the DC universe. It’s not really connected to the movies or other TV shows, so you think with it just being a comedy, they might be able to play a little fast and loose with the rules. Maybe you could even have Batman show up? I mean, the show takes place at Wayne Security, a division of Wayne Enterprises, which is owned by Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne’s Cousin, Van Wayne is in charge of the company. Van is even in constant contact with Bruce as we’ve seen in the promos for the show.

But if you are getting your hopes up for an actual appearance of Batman on Powerless, you might want to lower your expectations, as Executive Producer Justin Halpern explains:

"Even if you want to see [Bruce Wayne’s] hands pop into frame, you’d have to go get [Ben] Affleck; you can’t just have anyone’s hands. We ask for as much as we can get, and we see where we can find a happy medium. Like anything, they wanted to make sure they didn’t think the show was terrible before they let us use stuff."

Halpern also explained that any characters used in the CW shows involve a lot of red tape to get to appear, so it’s unlikely you’ll see Supergirl, Flash, Arrow, etc appear on the show. The good news is that for that very reason Powerless is going to really dig deep into DC’s roster of heroes and villains that more hardcore fans might appreciate according to EP Patrick Schumacher:

"The idea is that we’re going to pull from the entire canon of the comics. You’re going to see characters you’re familiar with if you are a hardcore comic book fan. A lot of those heroes, I would look them as underdogs."

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So it actually sounds more like the upper brass is waiting to see if Powerless is actually a successful show and then maybe if it’s popular enough you might see Batman show up. It certainly doesn’t have to be Ben Affleck. Since it’s a comedy show, it would be great to see more comedic heroes like Booster Gold and Plastic Man (and Elongated Man, have them bicker about who’s the better stretchy superhero!) show up. Powerless debuts on NBC February 2nd.

h/t EW