A while back news broke that filmmaker Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” would be getting a tie-in spin-off TV series on HBO Max, one that would be set within the halls of the Gotham Police Department.
Shortly after came word of a second series spin-off, this one focusing on Colin Farrell’s The Penguin character. The recent success of “Peacemaker,” a spin-off series from “The Suicide Squad” film for HBO Max, shows that this companion series style strategy can work.
Speaking to The Cyber Nerds (via The Playlist) this week, Reeves has now revealed that the Gotham PD series has evolved into something else which might partly explain the change in showrunner:
“The GCPD thing, that story has kinda evolved. We’ve actually now [moved] more into the realm of exactly what would happen in the world of Arkham as it relates coming off of our movie and some of the characters and their origins… almost leaning into the idea of… it’s like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham.
The idea, again the way that Gotham is a character in the movie, I really want Arkham to exist as a character. You go into this environment and encounter these characters in a way that feels really fresh. And so in our work on Gotham, that story started to evolve, and it started feeling [like], ‘Wait, we should really lean into this.’ And then that’s kinda where that’s gone.”
Reeves also reportedly hints that any “Arkham” series will now hit after the planned series about the rise of The Penguin. HBO Max will likely move forward soon though following “The Batman” opening this weekend to a final domestic tally of $134 million. In addition, it’s expected more standalone DC projects could soon be put into development.
