BatmanPhoto: Jonathan Ollie/Warner Bros.
In today’s movie industry obsessed with superhero franchises, it’s rare to see a popular comic book movie that doesn’t immediately create future sequels, crossovers, and an entire cinematic universe. And yet, here’s how
Batman director Matt Reeves has spent the weekend since his film came out, first insisting that a certain scene at the end of the film is not a Marvel-style teaser for the next Batman, and now revealing – on the Happy Sad Confused: Via Variety podcast – that HBO Max’s Batman spin-off centered around Gotham City Police has been ‘postponed’.
This news isn’t particularly surprising if you’ve been following HBO Max’s efforts to make Batman spin-offs, as another spin-off in development has Colin Farrell reprising his role as Penguin and just… seems like a better idea altogether.
The Gotham PD Show would have been a prequel, “Year One” to the “Year Two” of the movie, and would have focused on corrupt cops and Jeffrey Wright’s Jim Gordon as they deal with the sudden appearance of this Batman guy, which is the same basic premise as did Fox’s Gotham (at least in the later seasons when little Bruce Wayne started to grow up).
It sounds like a spin-off that you would do if you had to do a spin-off, which is why it doesn’t have the same popularity as the Penguin show and that’s probably why it’s not currently moving forward. But, as Reeves teased over the weekend when he debunked those sequel theories, he’s also considering doing a standalone HBO Max spin-off set in Akrham Asylum that, based on the fact alone, after the film’s production and realizing what other stories he could tell in this universe also seems like a better idea than the presentation of the GCPD.