The inmates are staying in the asylum as Variety reports that Warner Bros. Discovery is no longer moving forward with the Arkham Asylum series meant for their Max streaming service.
Arkham Asylum was to be written and showrun by Antonio Campos and examine the infamous compound that houses the majority of Batman’s villains. The series had been envisioned as set in Matt Reeves’ The Batman continuity and went through an evolution when it was first announced it 2020. The series was originally meant to focus on the Gotham City Police Department as well as Arkham, but was later reworked to focus solely on the asylum with Reeves, who would have produced, describing it as a “horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham.”
However, when WB restructured its slate of DC films with the creation of DC Studios to be headed by The Suicide Squad director James Gunn and frequent DC producer Peter Safran, it was announced Arkham Asylum would no longer be set in Reeves’ The Batman, but in Gunn’s upcoming DCU which will begin next year with Superman starring David Corenswet.
It is not known why Arkham Asylum is no longer moving forward. It could be WB or Gunn and Safran changing their plans as we’ve already seen with a couple projects, such as last week’s announcement the Green Lantern series Lanterns has moved from Max to HBO proper, or perhaps WB’s continued reluctance to have two different versions of Batman on film and TV at the same time with Reeves’ The Penguin series premiering on Max in September and The Batman Part II set for an October 2026 release.
Even still, Arkham Asylum had already gone through significant changes before this new development. The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire writer Terrence Winter was originally named to write and showrun the series when it was first announced, but dropped out just a few months later due to creative differences. Joe Barton (Girl/Haji) was tapped for the role afterwards, but similarly left due to differences with WB.
We’ll have to wait and see if Arkham Asylum could eventually be revived within the DCU or The Batman franchise or if it will remain locked up.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
