Despite James Gunn's expansive DCU slate coming down the line, as spearheaded by his Superman feature with David Corenswet, excitement has yet to wane — or would it be Wayne? — for Matt Reeves' still developing universe surrounding Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader. While its extensive delay was reported earlier this year, The Batman: Part II is still on the way, as is Max’s Penguin series with Colin Ferrell. This version of Gotham City’s future became slightly more limited, however, with the news that the Arkham Asylum streaming series is no longer part of DC’s upcoming TV slate.
But while many fans quickly took that update as an indication that The Batman sequel won’t happen, I came away from that somewhat disappointing news with quite a bit of excitement. Not because I’m hoping for this non-DCU canon to fail or anything; on the contrary, I’m now fully ready to accept upwards of 12 different Batman iterations existing at the same time, and sincerely hope Reeves’ universe continues expanding. Rather, I’m more grateful that this specific avenue of Arkham-focused development is being retooled, and we’ll get into those reasons below.
A Gotham Central Adaptation Is Now Possible Again
When news first broke that Max would be the future home of TV spinoffs from Matt Reeves' The Batman franchise, the first project was set to focus on Gotham City PD, with or without Jeffrey Wright's James Gordon at the helm. One of the major influences for this project would have been Gotham Central, the comic series created by expert Batman storytellers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, along with artist Michael Lark, a regular collaborator of both writers.
I’m not hiding behind a cape or costumed alter ego in saying I absolutely adore Gotham Central, which is among my Top 5 favorite comic series of all time, and is actually higher than any other Batman titles. A semi-procedural with overarching storylines, GC is an expertly crafted cop drama with strong and relatable characters in a city that also includes a Dark Knight at his rogues gallery.
At some point along the creative journey, those Gotham Central roots were paved over with an adjusted focus on the fictional metro’s most notorious setting, which bummed me out to no end. (I’d also been extremely hopeful for Fox’s Gotham to be closer to the aforementioned comic, but it became something else entirely.) So now, I’m hopeful that these attempts to go full Arkham exhausted that particular inspiration, and that returning to the drawing board will once again make it clear to all that a Gotham Central TV show is the only logical option.
An additional slice of hope here comes from the fact that Ed Brubaker has built up his TV cred in recent years, going from Westworld writer to Too Old to Die Young co-creator to head writer on Prime’s upcoming animated series Batman: Caped Crusader. So it’s more than feasible to consider a future where he could serve as a showrunner for a Gotham Central adaptation, which would hopefully be the most faithful distillation possible.
Arkham Asylum Shouldn't Be The Focus Of A Whole Series
Like any Batman fan worth his utility belt smelling salts, I adore Arkham Asylum as a never ending source of dark and cryptic storytelling. Regardless of what version of the institution is in the spotlight, or where we are in Gotham City’s twisted timeline, Arkham and its population of deviants, sadists, murderers and fanatics are top-notch. But as the old axiom goes: it’s a nice (read: horrifying) place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
Even though Arkham and its history are worthy of exploring a thousand different ways, there’s no genuine joy to be found between any of its walls, and trying to set a TV show within a location that is only known for being destructive and threatening is a fool’s errand. As corny as sounds, TV shows are a respite for audiences, and even when the subject matter is more dour and deadly than real life, there’s always at least one major element of hope to hang onto, and that just doesn’t exist in Arkham.
80 years of DC comics serves as decent proof of that notion as well. While Arkham Asylum is a popular spot to set a miniseries or selected arcs of an ongoing series — everyone should check out Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth — it doesn’t often lend itself to being THE main attraction. Obviously there are ways to make that work, presumably through following the private lives of the Asylum’s various professionals.
But even those roles are often slightly less than morally sound, save for the occasional white knight like Chase Meridian, which wouldn’t leave much room for well-rounded protagonists for viewers to side with. As well, it would be rather suspect to set a whole show at Arkham Asylum without Batman showing up regularly, which presumably wouldn’t be the case regarding Robert Pattinson’s Batman.
Instead, I’m hoping any Batman TV shows that make it through the development process intact keep Arkham squared away as a vital part of the story, just not one that needs to be referred to in the title itself. It’s always better for a place like that to keep a little mystique, even though nobody named Mystique is actually in there, since that’s a wholly different comic book villain.
While waiting to see what happens with any additional Batman-centric series, be sure to pick up a Max subscription to check out The Penguin when it debuts on September 8, 2024. Head to our 2024 TV schedule to see what else is swooping across the small screen in the near future.
