Important takeaways
- Elijah Wood will play the Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Shadow.
- The game takes place after Arkham Origins with a young Bruce Wayne and iconic villains.
- This is Wood's first major motion capture work for games, bringing the Scarecrow to life in VR.
The latest upcoming Batman game, Batman: Arkham Shadow, will see Elijah Wood take on the role of the villainous Dr. Jonathan Crane, better known as Scarecrow, after a recent reveal. The casting notice came just a few days before Batman: Arkham Shadow will be released on October 22 exclusively for the Meta Quest 3 and 3S platforms.
A fan-favorite superhero universe makes a big return with Batman: Arkham Shadow, which will see players take on the role of the caped crusader in virtual reality and put the fate of Gotham right in their hands. The game takes place right after the prequel title Batman: Arkham Origins and sees a younger Bruce Wayne return to take on some iconic villains like the Rat King and, of course, the Scarecrow.
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Now, like Batman: Arkham Shadow set for release on Meta Quest 3 and 3S on October 22, fan-powered YouTube channel Batman Arkham Videos revealed in a Q&A video that Elijah Wood will be taking on the role of Scarecrow in the game. While many of the game's voice actors, such as Roger Craig Smith as Batman and Troy Baker as Harvey Dent, have been known for some time, Scarecrow's casting surprised many due to his iconic status in Hollywood.
Eiljah Wood makes his DC debut as Arkham Shadow's Scarecrow
Wood is perhaps best known for his role as Frodo Baggins in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, along with many other major Hollywood roles, although he has a decent stint as a video game voice actor as well. Most notably, he portrayed the titular protagonist in The Legend of Spyro trilogy, which began in 2006, and he has even reprized his role as Frodo in several The Lord of the Rings video games in the mid-2000s.
But in any case, Scarecrow will be a much bigger role for Wood, as he mentioned in his short segment of the video that it was his first time doing motion capture work for a major game project. The video even provided a brief clip of the actor donning full motion capture gear as he seemingly taunts Batman in what appears to be one of the iconic scenes that play out when the player is defeated in Batman: Arkham series.
While the “Arkhamverse”, as fans have called it, took a long hiatus after the release of Batman: Arkham Knight In 2015, it made a controversial comeback Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League earlier this year. Now, however, fans have a chance to jump back in as the Dark Knight, who Batman: Arkham Shadow brings back the fan-favorite universe once again, putting players in the shoes of Bruce Wayne in first-person virtual reality.