Joel Schumacher was going to make a sequel to his not-so-successful film; Batman and Robin. It would have been called Batman: Triumphant, and would of had the Scarecrow being the main villain. Harley Quinn would have been the supporting villain, seeking revenge on Batman for killing her father, the Joker. The Joker would of had appeared as a hallucination as a result of the Scarecrow's fear gas. This idea was scraped. The project then changed to Batman: Victorious, and would of had the Mad Hatter as the villain. This too, was scraped. The next idea would of had Scarface and the Ventriloquist as the villain(s), but it never happened.

The project for a sequel continued, this time taking the name of Batman: DarKnight. DarKnight had Bruce Wayne giving up his crime fighting career and Dick Grayson attending Gotham University. Dr. Jonathan Crane uses his position as professor of psychology at Gotham University and as head psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum to conduct his experiments in fear. During a vengeful confrontation with a colleague, Dr. Kirk Langstrom, Crane unknowingly initiates Kirk's transformation into the creature known as Man-Bat. Citizens of Gotham believe Man-Bat's nightly activities to be Batman's "bloodthirsty" return. Bruce becomes Batman "to clear his name" and solve the mystery of Man-Bat. Kirk struggles with his "man vs. monster" syndrome as he longs to both reunite with his wife and get revenge on Crane, while Crane exacts revenge on those responsible for his dismissal from both Arkham and the university while encountering truths about his past. This too, was scraped.

Even though none of these ideas were ever finished, the idea of having the Scarecrow as the villain got threw, and he appeared in Batman Begins.