In April, it was announced that HBO Max would present a TV series based on Jeffrey Wright’s James Gordon and the seedy, corrupt Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) which would be established in The Batman. That plan, as director Matt Reeves put it, “has kinda evolved.” By that, it sounds as though the entire idea has been scrapped and instead, Reeves and HBO Max will develop a show that focuses on Arkham Asylum.
While speaking to The Cyber Nerds podcast, Reeves revealed:
“The GCPD thing, that story has story has kinda evolved. 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…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, ‘Wait, we should really lean into this.’ And then that’s kinda where that’s gone.”
Could Barry Keoghan’s “Unseen Arkham Prisoner” play a major role? Doubtful. Keoghan is a rapidly rising MOVIE star and his character is honestly too major to make the focus of an HBO Max series.
***SPOILER ALERT***
If you haven’t yet seen The Batman, you may not want to click on this article that reveals previously unrevealed facts about Keoghan’s character.
What Happened?
There has been some speculation that the GCPD series just wasn’t coming together. After all, there are probably hundreds of police procedurals in existence. What would differentiate this one? Even the “twist” of focusing on the corruption within the department isn’t new. Now, it may not have been a lack of a fresh direction that torpedoed this show. Reeves may have just made the creative decision to shift gears to a different kind of program. Either way, that project is dead for now.
Reeves did offer a bit of insight into what that series would have been about:
“It was going to be year one because the movie is year two, and I wanted it to be the first appearance. 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. 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.”
So at least there were plans to include Pattinson. So there may be some bigger names in the Arkham-based show after all.
In addition, Reeves and HBO Max are planning to deliver a show based on Colin Farrell’s “Oz” a.k.a. Oswald Cobblepot, also known as The Penguin in the comics, although in the movie, few characters go by their comic book codenames.
What do you think? Were you looking forward to the GCPD HBO Max series? Does an Arkham Asylum series sound better… or worse?
