Comic book writer Ed Brubaker has seemingly confirmed that the HBO Max TV series spinoff from Matt Reeves’ The Batman will indeed focus on James Gordon, the police detective that will eventually become the commissioner, and who will be played by Jeffrey Wright. Wright already has extensive experience with prestige television, having starred in three seasons of HBO’s Westworld, with a fourth on the way. However, Brubaker also clarified that the TV show will not be an adaptation of the book he wrote with Greg Rucka, Gotham Central.
Appearing on Kevin Smith and Marc Bernadin‘s Fatman Beyond podcast, Brubaker reported (via /Film):
“I was like ‘maybe they’re really going to make Gotham Central this time,’ and so I reached out to a producer who works for Matt Reeves and he says, ‘no, that’s not really Gotham Central. They’re making sure that they don’t call it Gotham Central and it’s more of a spinoff from the movie. It’s like the James Gordon show.”
Reeves serves as executive producer, and Joe Barton (Girl/Haji) will act as showrunner.
This show, which doesn’t have a name yet, will be a prequel to The Batman, so it’s likely that Robert Pattinson won’t appear in it.
It remains to be seen how they manage to make this different from Gotham. Yes, in case anyone forgot, there was already a batshit crazy Gotham PD series that ran for five seasons on FOX. Despite Batman not existing for most of those 100 episodes, the writers and producers felt free enough to pull in nearly every single one of his villains to use.
The Batman will also feature Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/Riddler, and Colin Farrell as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot/Penguin, but while details about the film are being kept under wraps, it sounds as though the film will show all of these rogues’ origins or at least their rises to power. Therefore, it seems doubtful they will be in the TV prequel.
However, viewers may expect to see The Batman cast members like Alex Ferns who portrays Commissioner Pete Savage, John Turturro as crime boss Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as District Attorney Gil Colson, or Barry Keoghan as police officer Stanley Merkel. It’s also possible that Andy Serkis could appear as Alfred Pennyworth.
The Batman will be released in theaters on March 4, 2022. This spinoff series will presumably hit HBO Max sometime after that. What do you think of another TV series about James Gordon’s pre-Batman days on the GCPD?
