Some fans have nicknamed this series the "red sky seasons" as the skies over Gotham City are almost always colored various shades of red, regardless of the time of day the action takes place.
During the midst of working on Superman (1996), the WB network approached the creative team asking them if they could do more episodes of Batman, which would air alongside Superman, since the contract to air Batman (1992) on Fox was set to expire in 1997. To freshen the look of the new show, the art style was revamped from the "Batman: The Animated Series" style to a more consistent and fluid animation, as well as to keep similarity with "Superman: The Animated Series". Many of the characters took on different designs for the series. Some fans of the previous series had trouble accepting the new designs and as a result the show is remembered more for the character designs.
In this series, Batman was given a sleeker, brawnier appearance with an overall darker costume: the yellow ellipse surrounding the bat emblem on his chest and the blue highlights of his cape and cowl were both removed and his utility belt has pouches instead of capsules and is now light brown instead of yellow. This new look, and the character's grimmer attitude, is taken from the now-famous "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" comic mini-series from the mid-1980's. His gadgets and vehicles were given a sleeker, redesigned look with a blacker color scheme. Bruce Wayne's appearance was also changed from the previous series: his hair was brushed back to highlight his face, with blue eyes instead of black, and his regular business suit was changed from brown to black.
This is the first time that Nightwing and the Tim Drake version of Robin are used in an animated series.
According to Paul Dini and Chip Kidd's book "Batman: Animated," "The New Batman Adventures" begins approximately three years after the end of Fox's Batman (1992).