During the production of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” HBO announced plans for a prequel spin-off TV series centered around the Gotham City Police Department.
Said spin-off would be set a year prior to the events of the film and focus on the cops, but it wasn’t clear which actors from the film would be back for the show.
Even so, it was widely believed the series would be a live-action adaptation of the award-winning comic “Gotham Central”. However, that comic’s co-writer Ed Brubaker has shot down those claims recently on the Fatman Beyond podcast.
Asked what he knew of the upcoming HBO Max series, he said:
“I was like ‘maybe they’re really going to make ‘Gotham Central’ this time,’ and so I reached out to a producer who works for Matt Reeves and he says, ‘no, that’s not really ‘Gotham Central’. They’re making sure that they don’t call it ‘Gotham Central’ and it’s more of a spin-off from the movie. It’s like the James Gordon show.”
“Gotham Central” followed regular cops and detectives as they dealt with the difficulties of operating in the shadow of Batman’s vigilantism.
Comparisons could be drawn with FOX’s wrapped “Gotham,” but that series was set when Bruce Wayne was a kid and by its second season embraced a tone best described as ‘dark camp’ – something unlikely with this still-untitled series which will play it more serious as it explores police corruption.