Thanks to Fox Kids
The planned Arkham Asylum TV series is no longer happening at Max, Variety has learned.
If Variety Exclusively reported in October 2022, Antonio Campos had come on board to serve as writer and showrunner for the series, which was originally set to be set in the world of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” But according to a person with knowledge of the situation, Campos’ version will not be moving forward. However, it’s still possible that a new project set in the infamous Gotham City asylum could be developed in the future, the person noted.
Thus ends (at least for now) the show’s convoluted path to the screen. It was originally announced in July 2020 with a series commitment, but at the time it was intended to focus on the inner workings of the Gotham PD as seen in “The Batman.” Terrence Winter was attached to write and executive produce, but he left the project in November 2020 due to creative differences. “Giri/Haji” creator Joe Barton was then brought on to write, but Warner Bros. eventually parted ways with Barton as well.
Reeves would subsequently say in a 2022 interview that the Gotham PD show was not happening, but that the story “started to evolve” into what became the Arkham Asylum show, which he described as a “horror movie or a haunted house that Arkham is.” Campos then joined, but Not long after, it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would take over DC Studios and launch a reboot of the film and television universe. In a series of social media posts in December 2023, Gunn said that the show was still in development and clarified that it was intended to be set in the new DCU rather than the same world as “The Batman.”
All of this isn’t to say that the world Reeves built in “The Batman” will lie fallow. “The Penguin,” a crime series starring Colin Ferrell reprising his role as the titular supervillain, is scheduled to debut in Max in September. Reeves is also working on “The Batman Part II,” though that film’s release date was recently pushed back from October 2025 to October 2026.
Gunn and Safran, meanwhile, have been busy relaunching DC’s interconnected film and TV universe. Production has now begun on a new Superman film starring David Corenswet, with multiple other films in the works. It was also recently announced that a Green Lantern TV series has been greenlit, but will be branded as an HBO Original rather than Max due to a new content delineation that HBO & Max boss Casey Bloys revealed to Variety in June.