HBO Max has another high profile soon-to-be addition to its massive streaming library: a new series spinning off from Matt Reeves’ forthcoming The Batman film. The series will be a police procedural set in the heart of the same crime-ridden Gotham City that Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne calls home. It has not yet been named, but reports suggest it has been colloquially referred to as Gotham Central and GCPD. At this time it has not been confirmed if Pattinson’s Batman/Bruce Wayne or Jeffrey Wright’s Detective/Police Commissioner James Gordon will appear in the show, and no casting decisions have been announced.
The series will be written and executive produced by Boardwalk Empire’s Terence Winter, who is joined by Reeves, Batman producer Dylan Clark, Daniel Pipski (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), and Adam Kassan (Tales from the Loop) as executive producers, with Rafi Crohn (Tales from the Loop) co-executive producing. Reeves’ production company 6th & Idaho will produce the series in association with Warner Bros. Television.
HBO Max have described the series thusly:
“set in the world Reeves is creating for The Batman feature film and will build upon the motion picture’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City, ultimately launching a new Batman universe across multiple platforms. The series provides an unprecedented opportunity to extend the world established in the movie and further explore the myriad of compelling and complex characters of Gotham.”
A police procedural in The Batman world certainly suits Reeves’ upcoming take on the character. The film itself is noir-influenced and heavily focused on the ‘World’s Greatest Detective’ aspect of the Batman character. Reeves described his take on the forthcoming film:
“I’ve talked about making it a very point of view noir-driven definitive Batman story in which he is investigating a particular case and that takes us out into the world of Gotham. I went on a deep dive again revisiting all my favorite comics. Those all inform by osmosis. There’s no continuation of the [Christopher] Nolan films. It’s very much trying to find a way to do this as something that for me is going to be definitively Batman and new and cool.”
“Our collaboration with Warner Bros. and DC allows us to elaborate and grow fan connections across these powerful brands for years to come. This is Batman as most audiences have never seen before and we know fans will want to spend more time in this new world inspired by the film.”
This is the latest in HBO Max’s commitment to developing DC properties. Recently HBO Max made the high profile announcement that it will be finishing and releasing the long fabled ‘Snyder Cut’ of Justice League on the service. In the TV space, HBO Max absorbed the DC Universe series Doom Patrol, premiering its second season on June 25th. In addition, J.J. Abrams has been tagged to produce a new DC superhero TV series exclusively for HBO Max based on Justice League Dark. This stems from WarnerMedia’s 2019 exclusivity deal with Abrams’ Bad Robot company to produce a series of HBO Max shows, with Justice League Dark joining period crime drama Duster alongside Overlook, a series set in the world of Stephen King’s The Shining.
More details on Reeves’ forthcoming spin-off series will be announced as they become available.
Jeff Ewing is a filmmaker and screenwriter in LA. My recent co-edited book “Alien and Philosophy” can be found here. Check out my website here, and follow me on Twitter!
Jeff Ewing is a filmmaker and screenwriter in LA. My recent co-edited book “Alien and Philosophy” can be found here. Check out my website here, and follow me on Twitter!