The Batman: HBO cancels film spinoff series, says director Matt Reeves

The prequel show was set to provide a deeper exploration of Gotham City corruption

HBO Max has cancelled one of two planned spinoff shows from Matt Reeves’ newly released The Batman.

In July 2020, Reeves announced that he was working with director Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire) to create the first spinoff series, as a deeper exploration of “the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City” that would go on to launch “a new Batman universe across multiple platforms”.

However, on Monday (7 March), Reeves told the Happy Sad Confused podcast the news.

He addressed the cancellation, saying “one thing that we’re not doing that I was gonna do... the Gotham police show, which, that one actually is put on hold. We’re not really doing that.”

When Reeves announced his initial plan at DC FanDome in 2020, he said the prequel would go back a year to chronicle Batman’s first appearance as the masked vigilante.

While he said that his original idea was “super cool” in a recent interview with The Cyber Nerds, Reeves explained that HBO Max and Warner Bros. have since evolved the project into something that will instead focus on Arkham Asylum.

In 2021, it was announced that HBO Max was developing a second spinoff that would focus on Collin Farrell’s character The Penguin.

According to TVLine, HBO Max still intends to move forward with the second spinoff.

Film Review - The Batman (© 2022 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)

Farrell will reportedly be an executive producer, as well as star in the series as it seeks to “delve into The Penguin’s rise to power in the Gotham criminal underworld”.

The Batman is in cinemas now. You can read The Independent’s review here.