A Gotham City Police Department vehicle has been seen driving through the streets of England -- though it is not part of any Batman movie or television projects in development.
A Reddit user posted candid pictures of a Dodge Charger "cosplaying" as a GCPD car, which was spotted outside of a Toyota car dealership in Greater Manchester, England. On closer examination, the car has the Gotham PD badge painted over the doors, a unique license plate that spells the words Gotham and the apparent owner of the car looks to be putting away a blow-up Optimus Prime from Michael Bay's Transformers movies. "GCPD police car spotted in Greater Manchester, England," the original poster wrote. "Know [sic] idea what they are filming here." The speculation that the car belongs to a Batman-related film or television project was quickly dismissed by another user, who explained the car's frequent presence in that neighborhood. "Bruh this happens all the time, someone in Liverpool owns the car and is often seen around the north west of England," they wrote. "I doubt they filming with this car it always gets spotted and people presume they're filming something but 99% of the time they ain't sadly."
The United Kingdom has been a prime location for many Batman movies in the past. 1989's Batman, directed by Tim Burton, was shot primarily at Pinewood Studios in Iver, England, the home of the James Bond movies. 2005's Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan, spent most of its production at Shepperton Studios for exteriors, the Batcave and Wayne Manor. Nolan brought the franchise back to Pinewood for the sequel, 2008's The Dark Knight, and director Matt Reeves brought Gotham City back to London with his hit 2022 reboot, The Batman. Most recently, the Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire doubled for Wayne Manor in Michael Keaton's return as the Dark Knight in the upcoming DC Extended Universe film The Flash.
While the mysterious GCPD cosplay vehicle is not part of any official production, Warner Bros. does have a number of Batman-related projects featuring the exploits of Gotham's finest in the works. Most notably, Reeves' The Batman is getting an HBO Max spinoff series that started as Gotham PD-centric project before evolving into a show about Arkham Asylum.
"The GCDP thing, that story has story has kinda evolved," said Reeves. "We've actually now [moved] more into the realm of exactly what would happen in the world of Arkham as it relates coming off of our movie, and some of the characters… almost leaning into the idea of… it's like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham."
Source: Reddit