Even more concept art from a canceled Batman video game may provide a window into a never-made follow-up to Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Knight. The recent DC Fandome event revealed the future plans for WB Games and Batman, including a WB Montreal game set in a new universe staring four members of the Bat-Family and Rocksteady continuing the Arkham timeline with a game that stars Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad. However, this was not always the case, and rumors have circulated about what both WB Montreal and Rocksteady have been working on since their last projects.
There was even talk that both projects were switched at some point, with WB Montreal hinting at the arrival of the Suicide Squad at the end of Batman: Arkham Origins. Additionally, Batman: Arkham Knight certainly left things off in a way that would suggest that Robin and Nightwing might take over for their mentor in a game by Rocksteady, but these are still games based on comic books, so anything is possible. In any case, what is known is that both Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League were not the first projects worked on at these studios, and plenty of other concepts went through development.
For more evidence of this, look no further than the Instagram of Jerad S.Marantz, a freelance concept artist who has worked with WB Games in the past. He has been posting some of his past work in recent days, including a killer-looking King Shark that would have fit right along with Rocksteady's previous depictions of Batman's rogues' gallery. That post was accompanied by a decidedly more high-tech batsuit concept, and it looked so good that it was previously thought to be plucked from the remains of a canceled Batman film. The end of Arkham Knight had the titular character set up as Red Hood, and the red eyes on this suit could imply that there was a new hero in town.
Of course, since this is art from a now-canceled game, that future may never come to pass. Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League takes the action out of Gotham and to Superman's neck of the woods, meaning that it's possible the game will not feature anyone associated with The Bat. On the other hand, Rocksteady has said that this is the next game in the Arkham lineage and that Harley Quinn is the same Harley from the past games, so it would make sense to have some sort of minor connection if nothing else.
Looks into canceled games like this would-be follow up to Batman: Arkham Knight is rare in the gaming industry and should be treasured. Even though players now know what Batman may have looked like in this game, WB will likely never follow that up with info about what could have been, at least not in the immediate future. The only hope is to have a gaming documentarian like Danny O'Dwyer or Geoff Keighley focus on a studio during the development process, but, even in those cases, some info sometimes remains lost to time.
Source: Jerad S.Marantz