The Court of Owls was a natural choice to be the main antagonistic force of WB Games Montréal's upcoming Batman spinoff game Gotham Knights, according to executive producer Fleur Marty and game director Geoff Ellenor.
During an exclusive interview with CBR, Marty and Ellenor were asked why the Court of Owls were chosen as Gotham Knights' main villains. "They're cool, and you said it. Part of it is that we wanted our own thing, and there's a lot of mystery in Batman games. They haven't been explored in a game, so it made sense to take inspiration from [the comics]," Marty replied.
"When the team started thinking about the game, with the death of Batman as the inciting incident of everything and thinking about how our characters deal with that, our villains [also] react to the absence of Batman," she eleaborated. "They possibly crawl from the shadows in the wake of his departure, and the Court of Owls are super [entrenched] in Gotham as this old thing, and it just made sense."
"Gotham, the city, is such a huge character in Gotham Knights," Ellenor added. "We started with this thread creatively of Batman [being] gone, and you're pulling on the thread of what he was working on, what was he trying to find out that was going on in the city at the same time? That just sort of graduated into the inspiration that there's a group of bad people connected to all kinds of stuff that goes on in Gotham."
Marty then concluded, "That being said, we're not adapting the comic; that's really important to note. It's not the story of the comic arc, just inspired by it."
A secret society and organized crime group, the Court of Owls was created by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. The group was introduced to DC's comic book universe during the early proceedings of Snyder and Capullo's run on Batman in late 2011. The Court of Owls appeared in the 2015 animated film Batman vs. Robin before making their live-action debut during the second season of Fox's Gotham in 2016.
While Gotham Knights will mark the first time the Court of Owls has been properly depicted in a video game, the group was previously referenced in WB Games Montréal's Batman: Arkham Origins. A prequel to developer Rocksteady Studios' main Batman: Arkham trilogy, Arkham Origins was released in 2013. However, it should be noted that unlike that game, WB Games Montréal's Gotham Knights is not set within the Arkhamverse.
Developed by WB Games Montréal and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Gotham Knights releases on Oct. 25 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.