Warner Bros. has owned the rights to produce and distribute official adaptations of DC Comics titles for decades, and, because HBO is a subsidiary of the company, fans can expect to find the latest cinematic releases from that world on its official streaming service, HBO Max. However, the recently released Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires has taken longer to show up on the platform than fans were hoping.
Luckily, the latest animated Batman film is finally set to premiere on HBO Max. Fans of the Dark Knight who missed out on Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires and may have been waiting to catch it on the platform will be able to do so in December.
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Originally, Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires was released in September on Blu-ray and DVD and to rent or purchase on digital platforms. That month, a day earlier, it also received a theatrical release exclusively on Mexican screens and in its original Spanish-language cut by Cinépolis Distribución under the name Batman Azteca: Choque de Imperios.
From director Juan Meza-León, the animated film is a unique take on Batman’s origin that, like other Elseworlds tales, does away with the modern urban setting, but also does away with Bruce Wayne. The hero this time is Mesoamerican teen Yohualli Coatl (voiced by Horacio García Rojas and Jay Hernandez in the English dub), who grows up to become a warrior bearing the appearance of a bat to avenge his father’s murder.
The killer in question is real-life Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (voiced by Álvaro Morte), who survives an attempt on his life that ends up claiming half of his face. This newly branded “Two-Face” teams up with a version of Joker known as Yoka (voiced by Omar Chaparro and Breaking Bad’s Raymond Cruz in English), who used to be a respected priest until “one bad day” drove him to madness.
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The Next Animated Batman Movie Is In The Works
Poster art for Aztec BatmanImage via HBO MAX / Courtesy of Everett Collection
Following the wild, historical reinvention of the popular DC Comics hero that is Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires, Warner Bros. is taking things in a more familiar direction for its next animated Batman movie. The film is called Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall, which is set to release sometime in 2026 and comes from director Jeff Wamester and writer Jeremy Adams.
The movie is the first of three planned installments based on Batman: Knightfall, which is a popular DC Comics story that ran from April 1993 to August 1994. It involves Bruce Wayne being forced to let fellow vigilante Jean-Paul Valley, who moonlights as Azrael, take over as Gotham’s protector when Bane puts him out of commission with a literally back-breaking injury.
These movies will be the first to directly adapt the famous Batman comic book arc, but not the first to take inspiration from it. Most notably, Christopher Nolan’s final chapter of his Dark Knight Trilogy, 2012’sThe Dark Knight Rises, recreates Knightfall’s most infamous moment when Bane (Tom Hardy) cuts Batman’s (Christian Bale) break from retirement short by breaking his back and putting him in captivity in the Lazarus Pit while he assumes control of Gotham.
Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires will be available to stream on HBO Max Dec. 22, 2025.
Release Date
September 18, 2025
Runtime
87 Minutes
Director
Juan Jose Meza-Leon
Writers
Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Juan Jose Meza-Leon, Alfredo Mendoza
Producers
Aaron Berger, Fernando de Fuentes Sainz, Jose C. Garcia de Letona
Horacio García Rojas
Yohualli Coatl (voice)
Álvaro Morte
Hernán Cortés (voice)