Fans hoping to finally get a live-action adaptation of the award-winning comic “Gotham Central” may be disappointed to know that the upcoming spin-off TV show of “The Batman” on HBO Max is not adapting the popular comic.
Ed Brubaker, who co-wrote the 2002 comic with Greg Rucka, recently appeared on Kevin Smith and Marc Bernadin‘s Fatman Beyond podcast and teased what he knew of the upcoming HBO Max series. “I was like ‘maybe they’re really going to make ‘Gotham Central’ this time,’ and so I reached out to a producer who works for Matt Reeves and he says, ‘no, that’s not really ‘Gotham Central,’’” Brubaker said. “They’re making sure that they don’t call it ‘Gotham Central’ and it’s more of a spinoff from the movie. It’s like the James Gordon show.”
To be honest, that still doesn’t sound any different from the FOX Batman prequel “Gotham,” which was also basically “Gotham Central” but without the name, and focused on future Commissioner Gordon at a time where supervillains first started appearing in Gotham City. The still-untitled Batman spin-off show is said to be a prequel to Matt Reeves’ film, which stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
By comparison, “Gotham Central” took place concurrently with the main Batman title, and followed regular cops and detectives as they dealt with the difficulties of operating in the shadow of Batman’s vigilantism.
Last month, the showrunner for the still-untitled Batman spin-off show, Joe Barton, took to Twitter to respond to a fan inquiry regarding whether the show would follow good or bad cops. Barton’s reply was short, but it gives a clue to the tone of the show, “There are no good cops,” he tweeted.