Batman might be heating up the box office at the moment, but don't expect to see him on your TV any time soon.
A rumored HBO Max prequel series centered around the Gotham City Police Department has been put on the back burner, according to "The Batman" director Matt Reeves.
"One thing that we're not doing that I was gonna do ... So, there's the Gotham police show, which, that one actually is put on hold," he told the "Happy, Sad, Confused" podcast on March 7. "We're not really doing that."
Despite the current cultural love for the caped crusader, the show wouldn't really have focused on him at all.
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"It wasn't going to be a Batman story," Reeves revealed. "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. And [Bruce] would have touched paths with [Commissioner] Gordon. It would have been someone to measure him against, but it would be a battle for his soul."
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According to Reeves, HBO Max was not interested in a show about a shady cop.
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"They didn't not like the idea, they just wanted to center a show on a character who was more — I get it," Reeves said. "So I was like, 'OK, so maybe someday we'll do that show.'"
The show had been in the works for years, having been picked up to series in July 2020. "Boardwalk Empire" creator Terrence Winter was initially on board as showrunner, but dropped out over creative differences, according The Hollywood Reporter.
However, HBO Max's separate spin-off focused on the Penguin is still happening. Colin Farrell, who is set to reprise his role from "The Batman" in the series, confirmed the news to TechRadar on Feb 28.
The show is rumored to be about Penguin's rise to power in the city of Gotham. Farrell teased that the series will span "six or eight hours."
Over the March 5 weekend, "The Batman" raked in over $134 million at the domestic box office, already the highest-grossing movie of the year after just three days of release.
So, while the Gotham PD might not be the bee's knees, the Dark Knight himself is as hot as ever.
