Support the siteSupport

The DC Animated Universe

Batman: The Animated Series was broadcast in almost none of the order it was made in, and everything built on top of it over the next fourteen years assumes you watched it in the right one.

0%
complete

Where to start with The DC Animated Universe

Watch Batman: The Animated Series in production order, not in the order Fox aired it. Production order is what the DVD and Blu-ray sets use and what the standard episode list follows, and it is the difference between an origin story arriving before the character it explains and arriving twenty episodes after. Everything else in this universe then falls into a straightforward line.

  1. 1
    Batman: The Animated Series, season 1, in production order Batman: The Animated Series

    Sixty-five episodes, beginning with On Leather Wings, which was made first and aired second. In this order the villain origins arrive before the villains are treated as familiar.

  2. 2
    Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

    The theatrical film, made during the series and set inside it. It works best after the first run, when the flashbacks to Bruce before the cowl have something to play against.

  3. 3
    Batman: The Animated Series, season 2 Batman: The Animated Series

    Twenty more episodes, eleven of which aired under the title The Adventures of Batman & Robin. Same continuity, same designs, and the end of the Fox run.

  4. 4
    Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

    Finished in 1997 and shelved until 1998, so it looks like a later film and is not one. It uses the old designs and belongs here, before the redesign.

  5. 5
    Superman: The Animated Series, season 1 Superman: The Animated Series

    Starts from scratch with Krypton and Metropolis and needs nothing before it, but it becomes half of the shared universe from its second season onward.

  6. 6
    The New Batman Adventures The New Batman Adventures

    Twenty-four episodes with a new art style, a new Robin and Tim Drake as a third Batman ally. It assumes you know everyone from the Fox run and reintroduces nobody.

  7. 7
    Justice League Justice League

    Picks up the same Batman and the same Superman with the same voices and expects you to know both. Fifty-two episodes, mostly told as two part stories.

  8. 8
    Justice League Unlimited Justice League Unlimited

    The direct continuation and the payoff for everything above, including characters last seen in single episodes years earlier. Its finale is the end of the whole continuity.

  9. 9
    Batman Beyond Batman Beyond

    Jumps to 2039 with a teenager in the suit and Bruce Wayne as a voice in his ear. It can be watched at any point after The New Batman Adventures, but it lands hardest last.

Then what? Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker comes after the second season of Batman Beyond and is the one film here that genuinely spoils something if taken early, so leave it until then. Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman and the short Chase Me sit in the redesigned Batman era and can be taken any time after The New Batman Adventures. Static Shock and The Zeta Project are optional: Static Shock is its own show for a season and then starts crossing over, and The Zeta Project runs alongside Batman Beyond. The three films in the last section were made years later in the same style and their place in the continuity has never been settled, so treat them as extras rather than as an ending.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

0titles watched
0episodes checked
0left to watch
up next

Sync & backup

Your progress is saved on this device automatically. To carry it to another device, move the code below.

The code holds only this franchise. The link opens the tracker with your progress already filled in — good for showing someone where you're at. The image is a picture you can keep anywhere: scan the code on it with a phone, or drag the file back in below.

Drag a SagaList image here, or .

This reads the progress stored inside the picture, so nothing has to be retyped. If the image has been through a messaging app it may have been re-encoded and lost that — scan the code on it instead, or copy the code printed along the bottom.

Restoring replaces the progress currently saved on this device for the franchise the code belongs to.