DC's Arkham Asylum Series No Longer Moving Forward at Max

The new spinoff series has been in the works since 2020.

By Jenna Anderson

After years of being in the works, DC's Arkham Asylum spinoff series has reportedly been put on ice. On Friday, reports indicated that the current iteration of the Arkham Asylum project is not moving forward. The series, which has been in the works in some capacity since being given a series order in July of 2020, was originally designed to be a spinoff to Matt Reeves' The Batman series of films focused on the Gotham City police department. In 2022, it was confirmed that the project had evolved into focusing on Arkham Asylum, with The Staircase and Christine's Antonio Campos being brought on to serve as showrunner and head writer. It was subsequently teased that the series could be set in James Gunn and Peter Safran's forthcoming DC Universe.

According to reports, there is still a chance that a project set in Arkham could be developed at a later date, either as a spinoff of The Batman or as part of the DCU. The Batman already has a spinoff series, The Penguin, set to debut later this year, as well as a sequel in the works, which is set to make its debut in the fall of 2026.

What Is Arkham Asylum About?

While exact plot details were never made public about the Arkham Asylum series, the show would have taken place in the titular compound, where some of Gotham City's most dangerous criminals and supervillains are held. A number of writers joined and left the project since its initial announcement in 2020, including Terrence Winter and Joe Barton.

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"The GCPD thing, that story has kinda evolved," Reeves explained in a 2022 interview with The Cyber Nerds. "We've actually now [moved] more into the realm of exactly what would happen in the world of Arkham as it relates coming off of our movie, and some of the characters… almost leaning into the idea of… it's like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham. The idea, again the way that Gotham is a character in the movie, I really want Arkham to exist as a character. You go into this environment and encounter these characters in a way that feels really fresh. And so in our work on Gotham, that story started to evolve, and it started feeling [like], 'Wait, we should really lean into this.' And then that's kinda where that's gone."

h/t: Variety

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