Arkham Asylum Series Canceled At Max
Every exceptionally bad villain in Gotham City of the D.C. Cinematic Universe winds up in the fictional Arkham Asylum. A Warner Bros. series about the mental institution for the criminally insane was announced in July 2020 and set to stream on Max. Filmmaker Antonio Campos was tapped to be the screenwriter and showrunner to develop the series with strong potential to be an enduring hit when done right.
Unfortunately, things haven’t gone right, so Campose won’t write and provide the guiding vision for the show’s creation.
The Tortured Production Of A Serious House
Variety reported Campos’ departure from the project on Friday and cited an unnamed source as affirming the Campos version of Arkham Asylum won’t be filmed. The project is shelved for the moment but likely will see the light of day once again; just like the villains, it often holds only briefly in the world of DC Comics. The cause of the apparent fallout between Campos and the TV show’s producers wasn’t made known, but it follows a string of near-starts that ultimately stopped the proposed series.
Writers Keep Walking Away
Terence Winter was originally selected as the show’s writer and executive producer in 2020 after successful stints as a writer and producer for The Sopranos, The Wolf of Wall Street, Boardwalk Empire, and Get Rich or Die Trying. Creative differences quickly put an end to Winter’s participation in the project. Joe Barton, who created the Tokyo-based police drama series Giri/Haji was to replace Winter as the writer for Arkham Asylum, but that also fell apart by 2022.
The Original Plan
The initial project for the TV series about the infamous Gotham City asylum was to focus on the Gotham City Police Department, with or without Commissioner James Gordon. Many prominent actors have played Commissioner Gordon in the various Batman films, led by Academy Award-winner Gary Oldman.
Other popular Gordon actors include Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, and J.K. Simmons in various films. Neil Hamilton played the commissioner in the campy 1960s TV production starring Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Plans Changed Again
Filmmaker Matt Reeves was originally in charge of the project, which still offers a good chance of seeing life on the small screen. Reeves, in 2022, said the proposed TV show had evolved from being about the Gotham City Police Department to more of a horror show about the infamous fictional asylum for the criminally insane. That’s when he hired Campos to provide his creative vision for the project.
Things changed soon after, though. Peter Safran and James Gunn took control of DC Studios and, in 2023, said the project would be set within the DC cinematic universe instead of the world of The Batman.
The One Chance At Airing
The additional change led to the recent creative differences that led to Campos’ exit from the project, but the project still has life — albeit one that requires life support.
That support might come from the upcoming streaming release of The Penguin, starring Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot and depicting his transformation from a relative nobody into one of Gotham City’s most feared gangsters. That series also is set to run on Max starting September 8 and, if successful, might spur the production of Arkham Asylum.
Source: Variety
