Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s director, Axel Rydby, has said that the game acts as a “tribute” to late Batman actor Kevin Conroy, who sadly passed away in 2022.
Rocksteady has an unenviably massive task on its hands with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Not only is it the studio’s first release since 2015’sBatman Arkham Knight, but it’s also the final vocal performance of Kevin Conroy, the beloved actor who portrayed Batman across all of the Arkham games and many of the animated shows.
It’s a bit unfortunate, then, that Conroy’s final vocal performance as Batman has him playing a mind-controlled version of the character that, if the title of the game is to be believed, is going to end up being killed by the Suicide Squad. Even with such a potentially grim fate, the game’s director, Axel Rydby,recently told Eurogamer at a preview event that the game acts as a tribute to Conroy.
While speaking about the game at a recent preview event, Rydby said that Conroy’s passing was “very emotional” for everyone at the studio, noting that it’s hard to overstate how “important” he has been to the character of Batman and his depiction across various types of media. Rydby said that, in response, Rocksteady wanted to make Kill the Justice League “as much of a tribute” as it could to Conroy.
Not only does Rocksteady view Batman’s portrayal in the game as a tribute to Conroy, but there are also someactualtributes to the late actor to be found within the game. One example, as showcased by Eurogamer, is a plaque that can be found in the Justice League base that lists Conroy’s name and says “In Loving Memory”. There’s also one for Arleen Sorkin, who is the real-world inspiration behind Harley Quinn.
“His performance as Batman in this game is stellar, as always. But he’s taken Batman to a new place, I think in this game, where he’s an older character. We know that Mr. Conroy really enjoyed his performance in the game and that was important to us that it felt like he liked what we were doing with the character as well.”
Rydby also took the time to compliment Conroy’s final performance, saying that he’s “taken Batman to a new place” and that he enjoyed his performance as an older version of the character that we all know from the Batman Arkham games. We’ll find out for sure in just a few weeks when Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launches.
