Following the departure of Terence Winter, HBO Max has announced that Joe Barton is taking over showrunning duties on “Gotham PD,” a spin-off show based on Matt Reeves‘ upcoming new “The Batman” film scheduled for March 2022. Barton is known as the creator of the BBC Two television crime series “Giri/Haji” about the Yakuza underworld in Japan and how it crosses over into London’s streets.
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Barton also wrote on AMC and Channel 4 sci-fi drama “Humans” and Netflix and BBC drama “Troy: Fall of a City.” Other projects include Sky thriller “Extinction” and an adaptation of Sally Green’s “Half Bad” with Andy Serkis for Netflix and, most recently, “Invasion,” a British sci-fi film starring Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer, from Amazon Studios and should be out later this year.
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Winter, the original showrunner, known for “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Vinyl,” apparently left the show over creative differences. Unofficially known as “Gotham PD,” the show is actually untitled now, but this seems to work as a temporary title for now.
Warner Media/DC Films chief Walter Hamada recently told the New York Times the new hope for DC would be to have four films a year released in theaters and at least two corresponding spin-off shows on HBO Max, so “Gotham PD” would fit that bill.
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The studio exec also suggested that the multiverse concept, soon to be ushered into “The Flash” will explain why Ben Affleck plays Batman in one universe (Earth-One, for example) and Matt Reeves’ Robert Pattinson plays Batman in another (Earth-Two), and separate from the DCEU continuity that includes the Justice League (potentially a separate universe from Todd Phillips’ “Joker” as well, got that?).
The original announcement said, “the groundbreaking television series is set in the world Reeves is creating for ‘The Batman’ feature film and will build upon the motion picture’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City, ultimately launching a new Batman universe across multiple platforms. The series provides an unprecedented opportunity to extend the world established in the movie and further explore the myriad of compelling and complex characters of Gotham. This marks the first television project for Reeves under his recently announced overall deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group.”
So that’s basically a prequel to “The Batman,” that either follows Commissioner Gordon or members of the Gotham PD either before the Batman exists or concurrently while he prowls the streets as the caped crusader (Reeves’ Batman is said to be said during his 2nd year as a crime fighter and he’s still new in the game).
Other HBO Max/DC Film spin-offs in the work include “Peacemaker” starring John Cena—a “Suicide Squad” spin-off from writer/director James Gunn— and a “Justice League Dark” series from J.J Abrams and his Bad Robot Productions.
