Gotham creators Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon said the upcoming spinoff of The Batman will be free to explore the world that gave rise to the Dark Knight in a way that their series couldn't do while airing on Fox's broadcasting network.
Gotham PD takes place within the same world as the upcoming film directed by Matt Reeves. The series will be carried by HBO Max, which Heller said will let Reeves put his stamp on the material in a way he and Cannon could not, within a recent interview with ComicBook.com.
"We were the last big network battle cruiser to leave the harbor, but we were very much a network show," Heller said. "I think now that we've realized that streaming is the new god, I think Matt's going to have a much easier time selling the kind of show that we wanted to do because he's got a movie with movie stars to back it up."
Agreeing, Cannon said, "It's going to be truer to the nastiness of what Gotham should really be, I guess."
Gotham aired on Fox from 2014 to 2019, developing its own mythology of Batman's origins, beginning with rookie detective James Gordon investigating the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne when their son Bruce was a young teen. Over its five seasons, Gotham explored the rise of supervillains in a city previously run by mobsters and followed Bruce Wayne developing into his future superhero role.
While Gotham PD touches on some of the same themes, it will be a prequel to The Batman, which covers Wayne's earliest years as the Caped Crusader.
Directed by Matt Reeves and written by Reeves and Mattson Tomlin, The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Colin Farrel as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/The Riddler, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Peter Sarsgaard as District Attorney Gil Colson.
The Batman arrives in theaters on March 4, 2022.
Source: ComicBook.com