Batman: The Animated Series Originally Wanted A Horror Icon To Play Ra's Al Ghul

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"Batman: The Animated Series" was produced to capitalize on the success of the Tim Burton "Batman" films. Both the films and cartoon played big roles in bringing a darker Batman to the wider public, the kind that may not have bothered picking up a copy of Frank Miller's comic masterpiece "The Dark Knight Returns."

"Batman: The Animated Series" is widely considered to be the superlative take on the Dark Knight and his rogues gallery. It helps that the series starred several villains never before adapted out of the comics. The pilot episode, "On Leather Wings," featured Batman fighting the monstrous Man-Bat. The 1960s "Batman" series tried and failed to include Harvey "Two-Face" Dent, but "The Animated Series" had him, gruesome origin and all. "The Animated Series" also brought in the most important Batman villain introduced since the '60s show went off the air: Ra's al Ghul (Arabic for "The Demon's Head").

Ra's debuted during writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams' tenure on "Batman" and "Detective Comics" in the 1970s. Like a James Bond movie villain, Ra's doesn't bother with any dual identity or simplistic gimmicks. He's an eco-terrorist who leads a League of Assassins, and he's also immortal thanks to a fountain of youth called the Lazarus Pit. 600 years has given Ra's al Ghul plenty of time to refine his skills and build his resources — he's the rare villain who makes Batman into an underdog. Bringing Ra's into animation also helped set the stage for Liam Neeson to play the villain in 2005's "Batman Begins"

In "Batman: The Animated Series," and then further appearances on "Superman: The Animated Series" and "Batman Beyond," the late David Warner voiced Ra's al Ghul. However, while Warner's deep and mellifluous voice fit the Demon's Head, he was not the only actor the "Batman" considered for the part.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2019, "Batman" voice director Andrea Romano revealed one actor who she had wanted to work with, and never got to, was Sir Christopher Lee: 

"It wasn't that he said no to me, because I did make him some offers, it's just that we could never work the schedule out. He would have been an awesome Ra's al Ghul. He would have been a beautiful voice for that. But, David Warner was stunning, just really terrific, so I was glad to have David."

Lee was a busy, busy actor (he appeared in about 250 films during his life). Plus, Lee lived in England, while "Batman" recorded in Los Angeles. But like Romano, I am taken with the unused potential of Christopher Lee as Ra's Al Ghul.

Debuting in 1971's "Batman" #232, Ra's al Ghul was created to shake-up Batman's rogues gallery at the suggestion of DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz. O'Neil recounted how it happened in 2014:

"As sometimes happens, you keep going back to the same well. The Joker, the Penguin, those guys. I made a mistake writing a bunch of stories without a colorful villain. That's part of the genre. That was a craft slipup on my part. So Julie had a name. Ra's al Ghul! It means, 'head of the demon' (in Arabic). And I went home with the notion that we were going to try to do a major villain."

O'Neil's Batman comics indeed emphasized the Dark Knight's detective side. Unlike the colorful Gotham filled with giant props and ludicrous villains in the 1950s and '60s, the O'Neil/Adams Batman was more low-key, moodier, and more Sherlock Holmes than Adam West. So, as Neal Adams wrote in 2021, they decided their new villain should give Bruce Wayne his own Professor Moriarty: "Someone who is equal to Batman or possibly even his better."

"If all that Batman fought were clowns like the Joker, Two-Face, the Riddler, the Mad Hatter, etc., we could hardly add to the legend of Batman up to that point by adding more clowns."

Indeed, Ra's comports himself with much more dignity than other Batman villains (he's certainly the snappiest dresser of them). He treats Batman with respect, calling him "Detective" and even wanting Bruce Wayne to become his heir. Ra's first appearance is all about testing if Batman is at his level.

In "Batman" #232, Ra's orders the League of Assassins to kidnap Robin. Then he goes to Batman, claiming his own daughter Talia has been stolen by the same fiend, so they must work together to find and rescue the hostages. Batman follows all the clues Ra's laid across the globe, with Ra's tagging along to observe the Detective at work. By the end, Batman has of course pieced together the truth, and Ra's congratulates him.

Batman rejects Ra's offer to join him, of course. To Ra's everlasting disappointment, the Dark Knight won't cast off his moral code to "save" (read: depopulate) the world the way Ra's intends. Writer Grant Morrison (who introduced Batman's son, and al Ghul's grandson, Damien Wayne) also believes the two rivals are fundamentally dissimilar people; Morrison said so in a conversation with Neal Adam about Ra's al Ghul:

"I don't think [Ra's and Batman] have much in common at all. I think [Ra's] presumes that because Batman is something of a Nietzschean superman that he shares the same ideals as Ra's al Ghul, but he makes the mistake of not being able to understand Batman's psychology. He sees Batman as a successor to him, and Talia as Batman's perfect mate because Batman is basically the perfect man. He is what Ra's Al Ghul would expect everyone to aspire to, to survive into his new world. He just would never understand Batman. It's like in 'Lord of the Rings' where Sauron cannot understand why anyone would want to destroy the ring. It's that different."

In "Batman: The Animated Series," Ra's cameoed at the end of Talia's debut episode, "Off-Balance." He first meets Batman, though, in two-part episode "The Demon's Quest." The first half is a very faithful adaptation of "Batman" #232 — O'Neil even scripted it himself. "The Demon's Quest: Part 2" then adapts O'Neil & Adams' "Batman" #243-244, down to Batman and Ra's dueling, sans shirts, in the desert.

Again, David Warner impresses as Ra's al Ghul in these episodes, but hardly anyone compares to Christopher Lee. If you told me that man spoke with the voice of God himself, I'd believe you. Lee was the rare actor who could make David Warner's voice seem faint in comparison. Even Kevin Conroy's Batman would seem dwarfed in power next to Lee, for that matter.

Lee didn't just have a remarkable voice, he'd also done some voice acting. Of note, he played King Haggard in the 1982 dark fairy tale "The Last Unicorn." As the King, he puts every other celebrity voice actor in that picture to shame with his powerful, sometimes scary, and ultimately pathetic villain. 

People of my generation most know Lee as Saruman from "Lord of the Rings" or Count Dooku from the "Star Wars" prequels. In the 1990s when "Batman" was made, though, he was most remembered for starring in Hammer Films' horror pictures. Lee's take on Dracula is especially well-remembered; he's one of the scariest and yet quietest Draculas, with Lee's British gentlemanly affect barely concealing the beast within.

Ra's al Ghul is a pretty similar villain to Dracula (and not just because they've both fought Batman). They're both ancient warrior kings made immortal, and they share a fondness for high collar outfits. Ra's typically dwells in mountain fortresses like Dracula's castle, and both characters convey a sense of powerful, foreign evil coming to invade. Similarly, Lee had also played Fu Manchu in several films, and that is another villain often compared to Ra's al Ghul (orientalism and all).

Lee passed in 2015 without ever playing Ra's al Ghul or working with Andrea Romano. However, for the comic "Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77," cover artist Mike Allred drew Ra's al Ghul as Christopher Lee:

DC Comics

After all, if Ra's al Ghul had debuted five years earlier, the natural choice to play the "special guest villain" on the live-action 1960s "Batman" TV series would've been Lee. The show got Vincent Price to play Egghead, so no doubt they could've gotten Christopher Lee, too.

Sir Christopher Lee may not be literally immortal like Ra's al Ghul, but his legacy as an actor sure is. He even looms large over roles he didn't play.