If you haven’t been paying attention to the early weekend box office estimates, it would appear Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” is a massive hit. Domestically, the film has already earned $128 million and worldwide, the superhero feature is right under $250 million. Needless to say, WarnerMedia is feeling good about already being deep into development on TV spinoffs. And apparently, the filmmaker recently teased that one of the already-reported spinoffs has undergone some serious changes.
Speaking to The Cyber Nerds, Matt Reeves talks about the future of “The Batman” franchise and, specifically, how one of the previously announced series has “evolved” into something else.
You may remember that reports were going around that one of the first spinoffs of “The Batman” was going to be an HBO Max series focused on the Gotham City Police Department. However, there weren’t many details about the specific plot, and there was a change in showrunner along the way. Well, according to Reeves, the show itself has changed quite a bit over that time, as well.
“The GCPD thing, that story has kinda evolved,” said Reeves. “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.”
If you’ve seen “The Batman,” you know a little has already been teased about Arkham Asylum in this new universe. In the comics, Arkham has been heavily used over the decades, most famously in a 1989 story from writer Grant Morrison, simply titled “Arkham Asylum.” That story features Batman venturing deep into Arkham and confronting a lot of the villains he has locked up. It’s definitely deeply inspired by the horror genre. So, from Reeves’ description, the new HBO Max series probably shares some similarities. Though, you’d have to expect Batman won’t be a major part of the series, if seen at all.
In other interviews, Reeves has hinted that the first spinoff from “The Batman” will be a series focused on the rise of The Penguin, which takes place after the events of the film. So, even though work on the Arkham series is still happening, it’s probably not going to be the first ‘Batman’ series to arrive on HBO Max.
“The Batman” is in theaters now. You can watch the interview below: