An upcoming The Batman spin-off series has a new working title that hints the show may be centered around Gotham City's infamous Arkham Asylum. The Batman film, starring Robert Pattinson and directed by Matt Reeves, has been highly anticipated since the announcement of its planned release date in June 2021. However, the project has faced numerous production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was shut down several times last year. It is now set to be released in March 2022.
Pattinson is the newest actor to take on the DC superhero role. He will replace Ben Affleck, who was initially set to direct the film instead of Reeves, as well as reprise his role from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Pattinson is joined by a host of big names fleshing out the rest of the cast, including Paul Dano, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jeffrey Wright. While the specifics of the plot remain unknown, it has been confirmed that The Batman will focus on a younger version of the caped crusader in his second year as a crimefighting vigilante. It will also be a detective story, with Batman facing off against a range of villains from the original DC Comics, including the Penguin (Farrell) and the Riddler (Dano). The upcoming The Batman spin-off series was announced in July 2020. It will be developed for HBO Max and already has Reeves on board as an executive producer, while Joe Barton will be taking over for Terence Winter as showrunner.
According to a new report from The Illuminerdi, The Batman spin-off may now have a working title: Arkham. What's more, the report says the main story of the series is likely to be told "from the perspective of a corrupt Gotham police officer," echoing similar things that have been said about the show in the past.
In the original Batman comics, Arkham is the notorious asylum for the criminally insane located in Gotham City, which has housed many of the city's famous villains at various points, including the Joker, the Riddler, Two-Face, and the Scarecrow. Given that Batman's character has a history of rounding up escaped Arkham patients and returning them to the asylum, it's possible there will be references to the vigilante in the series. More likely at this stage, however, is that Arkham is a separate, standalone narrative that occurs in parallel to Batman's first year as a fledgling hero.
With an extended wait for the release of The Batman due to the pandemic, tidbits of information such as this about either the film or the upcoming spin-off series will surely help to appease audiences eager for the projects' release. As for further information about the tentatively titled Arkham, there is surely still much more to come.
Source: The Illuminerdi
