Why Beware The Batman was cancelled (and why season 2 never happened)

Beware The Batman is perhaps the most underrated animated Batman show of them all. The Caped Crusader has a long and successful history with cartoon series, but this one is often overlooked when discussing them.

Premiering on Cartoon Network in 2013, Beware The Batman was renowned for its unique CGI-animation style, its funky theme song, and its more original take on the Dark Knight's DC Comics lore. It opted against using more famous Batman villains, giving characters like Professor Pyg and Anarky the spotlight.

In spite of its innovative approach, the series lasted just one season before its untimely cancellation. So what was it about the show that prevented it from enjoying a long run like its fellow animated outings?

Beware The Batman was financially unsuccessful

Beware The Batman enjoyed relatively high ratings throughout the early part of its initial run on Cartoon Network, with each episode bringing in over 1 million viewers for the DC Nation block on Saturday mornings. However, it was randomly pulled from the schedule halfway through its run. That immediately raised some eyebrows, with fans speculating that it might have been quietly cancelled by the network.

The show eventually returned to screens nearly a year later, airing on Adult Swim's Toonami block instead (which resulted in it only drawing half of the audience it had beforehand). And after those episodes had completed airing, its cancellation was officially announced.

The reason behind the show's abrupt termination was money, as it was revealed that Beware the Batman was financially unsuccessful. The show's unique animation design was expensive and it wasn't popular enough with its target audience to justify a second season, unfortunately bringing it to an earlier-than-planned end.

The show's cancellation brought about an end of a consistent run of animated TV shows on Cartoon Network over the course of nearly 15 consecutive years, which featured shows like Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, The Batman, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. But The Dark Knight is getting a new animated show titled Batman: Caped Crusader, which will stream on Amazon Prime Video in the near-future.

26 episodes is a pretty impressive run nonetheless, so we'll always be thankful that there are plenty of Beware the Batman adventures to enjoy, but this series was a bit of a-little-show-that-could, so it's a real shame that it wasn't given the chance to truly spread its wings.