# 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 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

* Winston Duke (Season 1) and Colman Domingo (Season 2) as Bruce Wayne
* Gina Rodriguez as Barbara Gordon
* Jason Isaacs as Alfred Pennyworth

### Season One

* Hasan Minhaj as The Riddler
* Lance Reddick as Thomas Wayne
* Sam Witwer as the Harvester
* Emmy Raver-Lampman as Kell
* Jessica Marie Garcia as Renee Montoya
* Jim Pirri as Arnold Flass
* Toks Olagundoye as Martha Wayne
* John Rhys-Davies as Dr. Hunter
* Ashly Burch as Vicki Vale
* Justin and Griffin McElroy as Henchmen
* Travis McElroy as Officer Preslowski
* Blair Bess as Lt. Stan Kitch

### Season Two (Fallen City)

* Morena Baccarin as Allie
* André Holland as Harvey Dent/Two-Face
* Cheech Marin as Jim Gordon
* Tahar Rahim as The Patriarch
* Alan Ruck as Coby Williamson

## Production

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 (initially, at least) 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 Chrisitian 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:
| Character | Brazil | Mexico | France | Germany | India (Hindi) | Indonesia | Italy | Japan |
| | Batman Despertar | Batman Desenterrado | Batman Autopsie | Batman unter Toten | बैटमैन: एक चक्रव्यूह (Batman Ek Chakravyuh) | Batman Bangkit | Batman — un'autopsia | Batman 葬られた真実 |
| Bruce Wayne | Rocco Pitanga | Alfonso Herrera | Dali Benssalah | Murathan Muslu | Amit Sadh | Ario Bayu | Claudio Santamaria | Ryohei Ohtani |
| The Riddler | Augusto Madeira | Alfonso Borbolla | Laurent Stocker | Tim Oliver Schultz | Sharib Hashmi | Alex Abbad | Michele Bravi | Takanori Iwata |
| Barbara Gordon | Tainá Müller | Ana Brenda Contreras | Julia Piaton | Lorna Ishema | Shweta Tripathi | | Alice Mangione | Nakashima Mika |
| Alfred Pennyworth | José Rubens Chachá | Carlos Aragón | Sam Karmann | Christoph Maria Herbst | Danish Husain | | Dario Bressanini | |
| Thomas Wayne | Nill Marcondes | Hernán Mendoza | Thibault de Montalembert | Peter Kurth | Rajat Kapoor | | Michele La Ginestra | Tsuyoshi Ihara |
| Harvester | Hugo Bonemer | Noé Hernández | Christophe Montenez | Alexander Scheer | Vrajesh Hirjee | | Saverio Raimondo | Ayumu Nakajima |
| Kell | Camila Pitanga | Zuria Vega | Anaïde Rozam | Maryam Zaree | Anangsha Biswas | Aurelie Moeremans | Beatrice Bruschi | Rena Matsui |
| Renee Montoya | Carol Abras | Lucía Uribe | Shirine Boutella | Nilam Farooq | Chakori Dwivedi | | Fiore Manni | |
| Arnold Flass | | | Guy Lecluyse | Frederick Lau | Aseem Hattangadi | | Edoardo Ferrario | |
| Martha Wayne | Adriana Lessa | Úrsula Pruneda | Amira Casar | Meral Perin | Sarika | | Maria Grazia Cucinotta | Anju Suzuki |
| Dr. Hunter | Marcelo Varzea | Gustavo Sánchez Parra | André Dussollier | Justus von Dohnányi | Ashwin Mushran | | Nicola Pistoia | Shinya Kote |
| Vicki Vale | Maria Bopp | Ximena Romo | Ana Girardot | Lavinia Wilson | Pooja Gor | | Michela 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 (replacing Winston Duke as Batman), 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.