The world of Matt Reeves’The Batmanhas been dealt a blow, as the planned Max series set inArkham Asylumhas reportedly been scrapped…for now. In a new report byVariety, the Antonio Campos-written series, which has been in and out of development for the last four years, has now been dropped in its current form.
WhenThe Batmanbecame a box office and critical success, Warner Bros. appeared to be set to expand the franchise as quickly as possible. This plan was thrown up in the air when it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be taking over the reins of the studio’s DC projects and rebooting the main DCU.
The Batman
Batman is forced to investigate the city’s hidden corruption and question his family’s involvement when The Riddler starts killing key political figures. Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz and Paul Dano star.
Although it was unclear for a short while how Reeves’ Batman vision would fit into the grand plan, Gunn revealed that there would be several projects running adjacent to the DCU, including The Batman universe. At the time, one spin-off series was already in production, which would provide a vehicle for Colin Farrell’s The Penguin, and it was confirmed that a second spin-off based on Arkham Asylum would still be moving ahead.
Matt Reeves' Arkham Series Seemed to Switch Universes to the DCU
However, things began to get a little murky for the series in December last year, whenGunn revealed in a social media postthat the Arkham show was being developed by Reeves for the DCU and notThe Batman’s Elseworlds universe. It had previously been easy to assume that Reeves was only developing projects for his own continuity, especially following his statement about the series in 2022, when he said:
“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…it’s like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham.”
The questions about where the series would fit now appear to be a moot point. It seems that the series will not be happening anytime in the near future, and certainly not in its original form when and if it does. This will be disappointing news for those who flocked to see Robert Pattinson’s much more grounded take on Batman in 2022, and are now eagerly awaiting the spin-off series,The Penguin, which will be released on Max later this year.
The Batman Part IIis still planned to arrive in cinemasin October 2026.
Check out the trailer forThe Penguinbelow,The Batmanspin-off series arriving later this year.
