Matt Reeves Says ‘The Batman’ Arkham And Gotham PD Spinoffs Were Canceled For Lack Of “Marquee Characters”
Series that Matt Reeves was developing to build his Bat-verse – or what he calls his Batman Epic Crime Saga – were consolidated a few years ago only to end up canceled. Now, we know why.
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The answer boils down to studio pressure as any entity with command and a checkbook is going to have its own ideas that are more focused on taking advantage of “marquee characters” as opposed to exploring new areas of an open world.
“As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do,’” Reeves said to Entertainment Weekly (via Deadline) of how his plans germinated. “It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.”
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So Reeves and producer Dylan Clark went to work on the series about the Gotham Police and how they got so corrupt, later adding the Arkham Asylum idea to their workload. The two concepts eventually merged into one – and not because someone realized Warner Bros. Television already made a show about the city’s cops.
No, WB kept pushing that marquee-character agenda on Reeves and Clark, according to the director. “They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters,’” he said. This potentially explains why Arkham was canceled and Penguin was not.
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Reeves discussed the arc the Colin Farrell portrayal went through. “What’s interesting is that, in the movie, the big red herring of the story is it seems like the person they’re looking for, that the Riddler’s pointing to must be the Penguin, some kind of informant. This movie creates a power vacuum, and because Penguin is so underestimated, people don’t really see who he is,” he said.
Reeves envisioned a “mythic Shakespearean” tale which might be the tone the series shoots for. The Penguin debuts on Max later this year. Although Arkham is off the table for now, it could be revived at a later date.
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