The recent success of The Penguin series on HBO proves audiences want more Gotham City beyond Batman and Joker. Warner Bros. had hoped to expand the world further with a Gotham P.D. show to serve as a prequel to Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Between the regime change at DC Studios and a revolving door of showrunners, the project never came to fruition.
Original Gotham P.D. showrunner Terence Winter, best known for Boardwalk Empire, recently spoke to The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast to hype up season two of his recent hit Tulsa King. When asked what the original plans were for Gotham P.D., Winter cited cop movies of the ‘70s New Hollywood era as a source of inspiration for the series’ tone:
“The idea was that we were going to do a 1970s cop show— something that felt like [Sidney Lumet’s 1981 crime and police drama ‘Prince of the City,’ but in the Gotham City Police Department. It was going to have that [‘70s] feel. It was going to be a present-day cop who is like a third-generation Gotham City cop, you know, his grandfather, his dad, and, you know, and Gotham City was largely corrupt. And this is the guy we meet in the present day who’s realizing that he’s kind of on the wrong side. The Batman was somebody that lived in that world, but you never really saw him. And it was really all about the police department and sort of this guy.”
Gotham P.D. was announced in 2020 while The Batman was in production. Though the series was given a green light for HBO Max, Winter’s ideas were not well received by Reeves. Following an amicable split, The Batman director moved on to Joe Barton to oversee the project until it was scrapped entirely, according to Winter.
“And I worked on it for a while. And ultimately, you know, Matt wasn’t feeling it. And I left; I know they brought in another guy after me. I can’t remember his name, the guy who did ‘Tokyo Vice.’ He worked for a while on it, but that didn’t go anywhere. I have no idea what he did. And then I read about ‘The Penguin.’”
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“And, you know, that’s great, good for them,” he said. ‘Like I said, you know, it was Matt’s idea originally, and, you know, more power to [him]. Sometimes, you’re in sync creatively; sometimes, you’re not. Or you get off on the wrong foot thinking, ‘Oh, we should do this and go, Oh, you know what, this is just not really working.’ Also, because there was Gotham, the show Gotham certainly took place in New York City, in the Gotham City Police Department, rather. [It] kind of stepped on the toes of our idea a little bit, even though ours was going to be totally very different. I think Penguin is great. I agree with you. I think they did a great job.”
Gotham P.D. was not the only spinoff of The Batman that was discarded. Plans for a series based around Arkham Asylum were announced by Reeves shortly after The Batman’s release in 2022. While DC Studios head James Gunn said it would remain in development simultaneously with The Batman Part II, no further announcements have been made since.
What are your thoughts on Gotham P.D.? Is it a series worth DC Studios revisiting? Let us know in the comments.
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