Batman is not just a superhero; he’s a legend. For more than 80 years, the Caped Crusader has been swooping across comics, TV screens, and movie theaters, reimagined, rebooted, and mythologized again and again by actors who are eager to leave their mark on Gotham’s masked vigilante. From Adam West’s campy version to Michael Keaton’s Gothic edge, from Christian Bale’s gritty realism to Robert Pattinson’s broken toughness, each Batman has defined an era.
But here’s the thing: Batman is everywhere. Movies, television, animation, video games, alternate timelines, one-off specials, prestige projects, and blink-and-you-miss-it appearances. Every generation gets its Batman, and every version swears theirs is one definitive one. The cape changes. The voice gets gravelly or humorous. The Batmobile gets louder. But the lore stays intact.
For actors, Batman is Hollywood’s ultimate rite of passage. But while some performances are burned into collective memory, and are endlessly debated, ranked, and defended, a surprising number of extremely famous actors, bona fide A-listers, and award winners, have stepped into the cape and cowl… and somehow slipped right out of our memory. Some voiced Batman before they were household names. Some played alternate or older versions. Some appeared in projects that time (or the internet) quietly buried. And some were so unexpected that our brains just refused to file them under “Batman,” even though they absolutely count. So yes, Batman is legendary. And yes, we think we know everyone who has ever played him. But history says otherwise.
Jensen Ackles
Jensen Ackles has spent years being fandom-famous in a very specific, very intense way. And the superhero genre is a huge part of it. Best known for his long run as Dean Winchester on Supernatural, and more recently as Soldier Boy on The Boys, Ackles has also carved out a surprising niche as Batman’s voice. He first stepped into the role with Batman: The Long Halloween, voicing Bruce Wayne across both parts of the animated adaptation. He reprised the role in Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League: Warworld, continuing through the DC Animated Movie Universe’s newer phase.
Casual fans don’t immediately connect Ackles’s name to the brooding hero. His take is noir, and it is clearly influenced by the comic’s Year One-era cynicism. He’s a weary Batman who sounds like he’s been through years of battles, but he’s sharp enough to outwit anyone in the room.
Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd might be more familiar to audiences as Dr. Owen Hunt from Grey’s Anatomy, but in 2013, he took on a very different kind of role. He voiced Batman (or more specifically, Thomas Wayne’s Batman) in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. The animated movie adapted the famous DC storyline where Barry Allen’s time-traveling creates an alternate reality, and in that world Bruce Wayne is dead, his father becomes Batman, and his mother becomes the Joker.
McKidd has been everywhere, from Trainspotting to Rome, so his casting was a curveball. However, it fit the darker, grittier tone of the movie perfectly. His Thomas Wayne is brutal, uncompromising, and more violent than the Bruce we know. The movie itself was singled out for its mature storytelling, and McKidd’s voice carried that gravelly authority, although one tinged with grief and rage.
Ron Perlman
Ron Perlman has a voice you recognize almost instantly. It’s deep, ancient, commanding, and a little rough around the edges. While most fans connect him to Hellboy or his countless character roles, Perlman also stepped into Batman’s boots for the 2006 video game Justice League Heroes. The game, developed by Snowblind Studios, featured a stacked voice cast including Michael Jai White as Green Lantern and Crispin Freeman as Superman.
What makes Perlman’s Batman worthy of this list is how different his take was from the norm, and how little credit he gets because it happened in a game. His Bruce Wayne was authoritative and militaristic, which fit the broader tone of the action-RPG. He was the guy in the room whom everyone listened to when things went sideways, and that unusual seriousness was amazing.
Jeremy Sisto
It feels impossible to summarize Jeremy Sisto’s resume in one sentence because he has popped up in so many TV shows, from Six Feet Under to Law & Order. However, in 2008, he quietly slipped into Gotham’s shadows and voiced Batman in Justice League: The New Frontier, the animated adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s celebrated graphic novel.
The movie had a stacked cast, with Kyle MacLachlan as Superman and Neil Patrick Harris as Flash. Yet Sisto’s turn as Bruce Wayne gave him a chance to bring his distinctive, grounded voice to the screen. Cooke’s story was steeped in 1950s paranoia and optimism, and Sisto’s Batman came across as pragmatic and slightly aloof, which is exactly the kind of hero who would thrive in that era.
Peter Weller
Peter Weller’s association with Batman feels almost obvious in hindsight. Long before he entered Gotham, Weller had been a part of pop culture through RoboCop by bringing an intellectual edge to characters who could have easily been all muscle. In 2012 and 2013, he voiced an older, battle-scarred Bruce Wayne coming out of retirement in the two-part animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.
The movies were faithful to Miller’s uncompromising comic, and Weller embodied the “aging warrior” archetype better than almost anyone. His performance was praised for its restraint, and he usually let the gravel in his voice do the heavy lifting. In Part 1, his Batman felt like a man reluctantly dragged back into the fight, while in Part 2, he carried the weight of Gotham’s survival on his shoulders.
Iain Glen
Iain Glen, best known as Jorah Mormont from Game of Thrones, took on Bruce Wayne in Titans from 2019 to 2021. Cast as an older, mentor‑like version of the character across multiple seasons of the HBO Max series, Glen’s Batman existed mostly in the margins. He was influential, controversial, and intentionally uncomfortable.
Titans deliberately stripped Batman of his usual mythmaking, and Glen’s portrayal sparked debate when the show premiered, with headlines focusing on how radically human this Bruce felt. Some viewers also noticed that he felt more like Alfred than Batman. Others appreciated the nuance because it showed how the character can evolve.
Ben McKenzie
Before Ben McKenzie became widely recognized as part of Gotham’s criminal underworld, he briefly stood for its moral origin point. Best known at the time for The O.C. and later Southland, McKenzie voiced a young Bruce Wayne in Batman: Year One, the animated adaptation of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s seminal comic.
McKenzie’s Batman deserves to be remembered because his performance captured the raw, unpolished side of Bruce Wayne. Year One is all about a rookie vigilante finding his footing, and McKenzie’s voice carried that mix of determination and uncertainty. His delivery was clipped and intense, and his Batman felt more human than mythic. It’s easy to overlook this role because McKenzie later became synonymous with Gordon on Gotham.
Michael C. Hall
Otherwise forever linked to Dexter, Michael C. Hall took a surprising detour in 2015 when he voiced a different kind of Batman in Justice League: Gods and Monsters. Instead of Bruce Wayne, Hall played Kirk Langstrom, a scientist who becomes a vampiric Batman after experimenting on himself. The movie, part of DC’s “Elseworlds” line, reimagining the Trinity with darker, alternate origins.
Hall also reprised the role in companion animated shorts, giving fans a taste of this blood‑drinking vigilante across multiple projects. This version carried a cold, clinical edge that matched Langstrom’s unsettling transformation, and Hall leaned into that aesthetic by delivering a Batman who was more predator than detective. It’s easy to forget that this version existed, but Hall proves how flexible that Batman lore can be.
Troy Baker
Troy Baker is one of the most prolific voice actors in gaming and animation, known for roles like Joel in The Last of Us and Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite. In 2019, he added Batman to his résumé in Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the animated crossover film based on the popular comic series. The movie saw Darren Criss voicing Raphael and Eric Bauza as Leonardo, but Baker’s Batman was the anchor because he brought the brooding hero into the same world as pizza-loving ninjas.
Baker earns his place for the way he balances seriousness with humor. The movie itself has a playful tone, mixing martial arts action with lighthearted banter, and Baker’s Batman is serious, controlled, and intimidating. But in scenes where Batman interacts with the Turtles’ youthful energy, there’s a hint of humor that allows the absurdity of the premise to shine through.
Bruce Greenwood
Veteran actor Bruce Greenwood has one of those voices that instantly draws attention. Known for his work in films like Star Trek and I, Robot, Greenwood became a staple Batman in animation. He first voiced the character in Batman: Under the Red Hood, and then carried the role into Young Justice, where he played Batman throughout its run from 2010 to 2022.
Greenwood’s steady presence has made him one of the longest‑running Batmen in modern animation, even if his name isn’t always the first that comes to mind. In Under the Red Hood, his voice captured Bruce’s guilt and pain over Jason Todd’s death, and in Young Justice, he shifts gears to portray Batman as a mentor and strategist who often works behind the scenes to guide the younger heroes. Greenwood’s Batman isn’t always flashy, but he was reliable.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
