Scarecrow (The Batman)

### Goals

Expose all of Gotham City to his fear toxins in order to become universally feared.
Infect Batman with his toxins, expose him to his deepest fears and drive him insane.

### Crimes

Illegal human experimentation
Psychological torture

### Type of Villain

Fearmongering Supervillain

**Dr. Jonathan Crane**, also known as the **Scarecrow**, was intended to be a recurring antagonist in *The Batman*. He was an iteration of the Scarecrow from DC Comics. Unfortunately, the Bat-embargo vetoed the possibility of using the Scarecrow in the show to not confuse the viewers with the live-action incarnation portrayed by Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan's movies.

## Biography

When *The Batman* was in early development, the production crew wished to include the Scarecrow in the show as part of Batman's rogues gallery. Said and done, the art team composed of Jose Lopez, Thomas Perkins and helmed by Jeff Matsuda designed the Scarecrow alongside many of the show's villains. This incarnation of the Scarecrow was relatively different than others in terms of appearance: from the concept art drawn by Lopez, Perkins and Matsuda, this Scarecrow wore black gloves, dressed like a farmer, had chains on his chest, hair like straw and had a sickle as main weapon.

Unfortunately, *The Batman* was vetoed from using the Scarecrow despite having already been designed due the imposed "Bat-embargo" (an embargo related to the Batman franchise which previously restricted the appearance of many Batman-related characters in *Justice League Unlimited*). In this case, given that Cillian Murphy was playing a different incarnation of the character in the then upcoming live-action film *Batman Begins*, the reboot of the *Batman* film series, Warner Bros. feared that viewers would confuse Murphy's version of the Scarecrow with the one slated to appear in *The Batman*.

Following the successful release of *Batman Begins*, a second attempt to include the Scarecrow in *The Batman* was made later in the show, when the production crew tried to use him as the main antagonist of the fourth season episode "Strange New World". But once more, the Scarecrow was still off-limits, possibly because Murphy would reprise the role in the then upcoming *The Dark Knight*. As a result, the Scarecrow was replaced with Hugo Strange as the episode's villain and never appeared in the show at all whereas Murphy reprised the role in *The Dark Knight*, which proved to be even more successful than *Batman Begins*.

## Trivia

* The Scarecrow wasn't the only Batman villain restricted from appearing in the show due Christopher Nolan's films: Two-Face, Ra's al Ghul, Victor Zsasz and the Mad Hatter were also vetoed from being used in the series due Nolan's plans for them in *Batman Begins* (yet the Mad Hatter ultimately never appeared in any of his films). Only the Joker was allowed to appear in the show due being Batman's archenemy as well as Catwoman and Bane, as *The Batman* ended before *The Dark Knight Rises* was released.
* There's a rumor that the in-universe reason for which the Scarecrow never appeared at all in *The Batman* was because the show was initially conceived as some kind of alternate continuation to *Batman Begins*, with the first episode taking place sometime after Ra's al Ghul's defeat. In this way, the Scarecrow was Murphy's incarnation didn't appear in the show because he was never seen again after Rachel Dawes attacked him with her taser. This theory is backed up by the fact that several online descriptions for DVD sales of the show's first season described the series as taking place after *Batman Begins*.