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WITH the much-anticipated The Batman movie receiving rave reviews from critics and fans since hitting theatres late last week, one might think this would be a good sign for the upcoming HBO MAX Batman series that had been planned to begin production after the movie.
However, during an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, The Batman director Matt Reeves confirmed that the spin-off television series had been put on hold indefinitely.
Reeves had been asked by the podcast about his plans following the film’s success. He explained: “One thing that we’re not doing that I was gonna do ... So, there’s the Gotham police show, which, that one actually is put on hold. We’re not really doing that.”
The series was announced by HBO MAX in July 2020. Reeves and Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter were supposed to work together on the project, but the latter was replaced by Joe Borton after Winter left in November 2020 due to creative differences.
Reeves explained this would have been a prequel to The Batman.
“The series was going to be kind of like [1981 crime drama] Prince of the City, where it was going to be year one because the movie is year two, and I wanted it to be the first appearance,“ he explained. “But it wasn’t going to be a Batman story. It was going about this corrupt cop, and it was going to be about how the worst gang in Gotham were the GCPD. And Bruce would have touched paths with Gordon. It would have been someone to measure him against, but it would be a battle for his soul.”
Reeves mentioned the idea of Gotham City P.D was “super cool, but they didn’t not like the idea, they just wanted to center a show on a character who was more – I get it,” a corrupted cop as a main character is not what they wanted. “So I was like, okay. So maybe someday we’ll do that show.”
Despite the announcement of the show on hold, The Batman managed to top the US box office with US$128 million (RM534.7 million) over the weekend.
