Batman Unburied


Batman Unburied is an American superhero audio drama podcast series created by David S. Goyer featuring the DC Comics hero Batman. It is the first of a series of Spotify-produced scripted podcasts based on DC's characters. The second, Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind, was released in 2023. In this version, Bruce Wayne is a forensic pathologist, his parents lived, and other characters appear with alterations.
In June 2022, a second season of Batman: Unburied was commissioned, in addition to a spin-off entitled The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark, which debuted on October 10, 2023. The second season "Fallen City", released on November 26, 2024.

Cast

In September 2020, the podcast was announced.
In July 2021, Winston Duke and Jason Isaacs were announced to star as Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth, respectively. Hasan Minhaj's casting was announced in September, along with Lance Reddick, Toks Olagundoye, John Rhys-Davies and Ashly Burch.
By October, the final main cast members had been unveiled: Gina Rodriguez, Sam Witwer, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Jessica Marie Garcia and Jim Pirri.
On April 5, 2022, a trailer was revealed. Season 1 was released on May 3.
In June 2022, Batman: Unburied was renewed for a second season. In November 2024, the season was titled "Fallen City", with Duke succeeded as Batman by Colman Domingo, reprising his role from the spinoff series The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark, alongside returning actors Gina Rodriguez and Jason Isaacs. New co-stars include Morena Baccarin as Allie, André Holland as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Cheech Marin as Jim Gordon, Tahar Rahim as The Patriarch and Alan Ruck as Coby Williamson. The season premiered November 26, 2024.

Reception

Writing in The Guardian, Graeme Virtue described Batman Unburied as "Instead of bright fights in tights, this is a slow-burning psychological thriller.... Heavy on immersive sound design and light on action, it is an impressively bleak take on a familiar myth, with the added frisson of the occasional F-bomb." Virtue also noted that in May 2022, the podcast displaced The Joe Rogan Experience as the No. 1 show on Spotify's podcast chart. After the debut of the first two episodes on May 3, 2022, the series topped Spotify's charts in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Mexico and India. The same week it was No. 2 in Japan. It remained at the top or near the top of the chart throughout its five-week run.
The Los Angeles Times noted that "Due to the lack of visuals, the immersive sound design shines throughout the series. Batman Unburied is chock-full of authentic soundscapes that sound — in the best way possible — eerie and haunting" and that "It's also far more focused on Batman's mental psyche rather than Batman's physical brutality. It replaces action set pieces with mystery, suspense and horror."

International adaptations

On April 5, 2022, Spotify announced that in addition to the main U.S. production, the script would be adapted for eight other countries, each with its own localized cast and production crew. They are set to be released on the same date as the original English language version. In some cases, script details were also adapted for the different language versions. For example, a reference to a Christian parable in English was replaced in the Hindi-language version with a reference to Buddha and Aṅgulimāla.
In these adaptations, the cast of Batman Unburied consists of:
CharacterBrazilMexicoFranceGermanyIndia IndonesiaItalyJapan
Batman DespertarBatman DesenterradoBatman AutopsieBatman unter Totenबैटमैन: एक चक्रव्यूह
Batman BangkitBatman — un'autopsiaBatman 葬られた真実
Bruce WayneRocco PitangaAlfonso HerreraDali BenssalahMurathan MusluAmit SadhArio BayuClaudio SantamariaRyohei Ohtani
The RiddlerAugusto MadeiraAlfonso BorbollaLaurent StockerTim Oliver SchultzSharib HashmiAlex AbbadMichele BraviTakanori Iwata
Barbara GordonTainá MüllerAna Brenda ContrerasJulia PiatonLorna IshemaShweta TripathiAlice MangioneNakashima Mika
Alfred PennyworthJosé Rubens ChacháCarlos AragónSam KarmannChristoph Maria HerbstDanish HusainDario Bressanini
Thomas WayneNill MarcondesHernán MendozaThibault de MontalembertPeter KurthRajat KapoorMichele La GinestraTsuyoshi Ihara
HarvesterHugo BonemerNoé HernándezChristophe MontenezAlexander ScheerVrajesh HirjeeSaverio RaimondoAyumu Nakajima
KellCamila PitangaZuria VegaAnaïde RozamMaryam ZareeAnangsha BiswasAurelie MoeremansBeatrice BruschiRena Matsui
Renee MontoyaCarol AbrasLucía UribeShirine BoutellaNilam FarooqChakori DwivediFiore Manni
Arnold FlassGuy LecluyseFrederick LauAseem HattangadiEdoardo Ferrario
Martha WayneAdriana LessaÚrsula PrunedaAmira CasarMeral PerinSarikaMaria Grazia CucinottaAnju Suzuki
Dr. HunterMarcelo VarzeaGustavo Sánchez ParraAndré DussollierJustus von DohnányiAshwin MushranNicola PistoiaShinya Kote
Vicki ValeMaria BoppXimena RomoAna GirardotLavinia WilsonPooja GorMichela Giraud

Spin-off

A spin-off of Batman: Unburied, entitled The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark, premiered on October 10, 2023. Hasan Minhaj reprises his role as the Riddler. The cast also includes Colman Domingo, Calum Worthy, Hannah Simone, Peyton Crim, Hugh Scott, Bri Giger, Aflamu Johnson and Amy Argyle. Gina Rodriguez, Jim Pirri, Jason Isaacs, and Ashly Burch all reprise their roles from Batman: Unburied.