The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) recently revealed its plan to implement a new standalone film trilogy focusing on a different iteration of The Batman. This seemed to confirm the decision to move away from Ben Affleck’s world-weary version of Batman.
Unfortunately, with the recent news that Affleck’s Batman would return in Zack Snyder’s recut of Justice League, conversations were raised comparing the two different performers. However, in a seeming attempt to strengthen the position of Robert Pattinson’s Batman, HBO Max shocked the world by revealing that they will be expanding Matt Reeves’ universe.
HBO Max announced that they were committing to a DC drama series set in the same universe as The Batman, but instead focusing on the Gotham City Police Department. Unlike the other Gotham prequel that began with the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents and gradually grew into a polarizing Elseworlds special, this one seems to be set later but prior to Batman’s arrival.
Terence Winter, creator of Prohibition-based crime epic Boardwalk Empire, will be both writer and showrunner of the new show, with Reeves as producer. Winter has previously focused on characters battling corruption, whether on television with the aforementioned Boardwalk Empire, or his adaptation of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street. This makes him perfectly suited for a universe set before The Batman and focused on Gotham’s deterioration into corruption, although this would pretty much confirm that Pattinson won’t appear.
What Characters And Story Could It Feature?
The show currently doesn’t have a confirmed date for when it will be released, but there are already conversations about whether any of the main actors from the movie will appear. Specifically, whether Jeffrey Wright will appear in his role as Commissioner James Gordon, although there are also rumours suggesting the movie itself has a different commissioner.
Other characters who could realistically feature could be Peter Sarsgaard in his role as D.A. Gil Colson, or even John Turturro, demonstrating his character’s growth into Gotham crime boss Carmine Falcone.
While including Wright would be greatly beneficial to the show’s legitimacy, especially considering his willingness to feature on television (and having worked with Winter before), it wouldn’t be surprising to see him turn up in a supporting role. The show could even help to expand upon the growth of several characters, such as any recurring villains who go on to appear in the movies. It all depends on how Winter and Reeves want to approach the series, including what inspirations they may want to take from, and one of the most popular choices would be the beloved Gotham Central comic book.
Gotham Central was a police procedural that debuted in 2002 and ran for 40 issues until 2006, receiving critical acclaim. It was written and created by the duo of Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker, focusing on the Major Crime Unit of the Gotham City Police Department. In order to allow the main cast to not be overshadowed, classic characters such as Gordon and Harvey Bullock only made recurring appearances, while Batman himself rarely appeared.
Instead, it alternated between both the Day Shift (Rucka’s focus) and the Night Shift (Brubaker’s preference), allowing a deep roster of characters and ongoing arcs. This included fan favourites such as Renee Montoya and her partner Crispus Allen, as well as the newly introduced Marcus Driver.
Villains appeared in a less cartoonish manner due to how intimidating and dangerous they would be to the police department, with Mr Freeze, Two-Face and Dr Alchemy especially impressive. This also meant a possibility to feature lesser known criminals and villains who weren’t as likely to feature in the movie trilogy.
How Could It Work?
If the series were to feature an ensemble cast akin to Winter’s previous work, it would allow for the inclusion of both the Day Shift and Night Shift characters, similar to the comic book. However, with the focus being on two different possible casts of characters investigating multiple major cases, it might be beneficial to expand upon the original comic’s description of “Batman plus Law & Order”.
In fact, I believe that the series could benefit greatly from the example set by Law & Order: Criminal Intent. One of the lesser known spin-offs of the original Law & Order, this series differed from most by having just four characters, two detectives with a Captain and a D.A., with Vincent D’Onofrio appearing as main character Robert Goren in nearly every scene of a twenty-plus episode season.
Unfortunately this pressure would eventually lead to D’Onofrio fainting on set from exhaustion. In order to combat this, the decision was made to bring in former Law & Order original Chris Noth, and split the series in two. Two different detective teams would alternate episodes, Team A every odd-numbered episode and Team B every even-numbered episode, with only the Police Captain and D.A. appearing in both episodes since they had scenes.
If the new Gotham Central series were to use this example as a basis for their show, they could have the Day Shift and Night Shift teams appear on alternating episodes. This would let the show dedicate more time to the characters on each shift, have alternating arcs, and could even allow the series to utilise this approach to have a longer series.
Since most shows on HBO are currently running an average of 8-10 episodes to a season (Westworld, Game Of Thrones – 10 episodes, His Dark Materials, Barry, True Detective – 8 episodes), Winter and Reeves could even have the two casts appear with 8 episodes each, allowing a 16 episode season in total. The opportunities this would provide could be unparalleled in the Batman Universe.
In fact, having The Batman Trilogy and a spin-off series could create a production plan akin to Ron Howard’s innovative suggestion for Stephen King’s Dark Tower. In essence, the plan would be for a trilogy of feature films, with a television season occurring between each film. This would let the films focus on the action, with the television shows covering more character-driven stories, allowing greater character growth.
If Reeves and Winter were able to use spin-offs on television to develop and build the world between films, they could even introduce elements early, such as villains and future supporting characters. Just imagine an episode of Gotham Central in its second or third season showing the Night Shift investigating the death of a family at a circus, with a guest appearance from Bruce Wayne as he offers to adopt the sole surviving child? A true meeting of the television and film universes: now that would be unprecedented.
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