Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood brings Scarecrow to life in Batman Arkham Shadow

Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood is making his first jump into the Batman world, VR, and motion capture work in Batman Arkham Shadow

Camouflaj

Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood is making his first jump into the Batman world, VR, and motion capture work in Batman Arkham Shadow . Wood, known particularly for his role as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, voices and did the mocap work for Scarecrow, aka Jonathan Crane, one of Arkham Shadow’s big bads, and he spoke a bit about the role in a new video (thanks, Eurogamer).

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"When Camouflaj initially approached me about joining the cast for this, I was super intrigued for a few reasons," Wood said. "I'm a massive Batman fan - the films, games, comics, I collected the toys when I was young - and I was super intrigued at the notion that this next chapter in the Arkham series would be done entirely in VR."

“Playing such an iconic character was a delicious request. I'm very excited to see all of your reactions to this game. I am excited myself to experience it and play it, but until then, remember: Just like fear, the shadow exists within us all."

Speaking of fear, the folks at Camouflaj had some of it when they approached Wood about the role. In a separate community Q&A video, the studio’s leads said they wrote Scarecrow with Wood in mind and didn’t have a backup plan in case he said no. Whoops.

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Arkham Shadow aims to continue what Rocksteady started with the Batman Arkham trilogy, and from what we’ve seen so far, it looks like Camouflaj has done a pretty good job capturing the spirit of Arkham in VR. Batman Arkham Shadow launches on October 22, 2024, exclusively for Meta Quest 3.