The Batman director Matt Reeves confirms that the GCPD/Arkham spinoff series has officially been put on hold at HBO Max. The Dark Knight has returned to the big screen in his latest reimagining, this time from Reeves as the filmmaker. The new franchise, starring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman, focuses on a younger Caped Crusader, taking place outside the DCEU. While The Batman isn't a full-on origin story, the reboot did instead take place during Bruce's second year as a crime fighter. Despite him not being completely new as a crime fighter, Bruce has a long way to go before becoming the character fans know and love from the DC Universe.
Unlike past Batman franchises, Reeves' new universe will be doing something unique that previous film iterations couldn't until recently. With HBO Max, Reeves is expanding his franchise onto the small screen with a number of upcoming spinoff shows set in the same world. One of them will be Colin Farrell's The Penguin, with the Irish actor reprising the role of Oswald Cobblepot in his own DC drama. There have been discussions about a potential Catwoman project starring Zoë Kravitz, which may get some movement following The Batman's early success.
However, it appears the GCPD series, which was the first announced spinoff, has run into a stop. During a recent appearance on Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Reeves gave some new details on the GCPD drama, which would have also had a huge Arkham Asylum element to it. Despite having been given a straight-to-series order, the filmmaker confirmed to the host that the HBO Max product has been put on hold. While HBO Max and Warner Bros. TV has yet to comment, Reeves described more what the series would have focused on, sharing the following:
"One thing that we were going to do, that I was going to do...so there's the Gotham Police show, that one has actually been put on hold, we're not really doing that. The series was going to be kind of like Prince of the City where it was going to be Year One. Because the movie is Year Two and I wanted it to be the first appearance [of Batman], but it wasn't going to be a Batman story. It was going to be about this corrupt cop and it was going to be about how the worst gang in Gotham were the GCPD. He was going to have crossed paths with Gordon, who would have been someone to measure him against, but it would be a battle for his soul. I loved this idea!"
Even though Reeves says that they "are not really doing that," it could be that the GCPD series will be revamped into something else as opposed to this being a full-on cancelation. There were some fans that had criticism early on about Warner Bros. doing another Gotham PD-related show only a few years after FOX's Gotham wrapped up. With Reeves' latest comments, it's clear as day that this would have been something completely different. It's still interesting who the mysterious corrupted cop would have been, especially if it was based on someone from the DC Universe.
While GCPD getting put on hold may be a disappointment to some, it's like The Batman universe won't explore them in some capacity in upcoming sequels. As long as Gordon's still around in future installments, Reeves will still have ways to go deeper into the corrupted police force. As The Penguin goes forward, Reeves still have multiple corners of his own new universe that could become a spinoff series down the line. Perhaps with GCPD shelved, Kravitz's Catwoman series will pick up some steam and get put into development. Only time will tell if GCPD will ever get resurrected, but it sounds like it's on the back-burner for a while.
Source: Happy Sad Confused Podcast
