Credit: DC / Warner Bros.If you thought things were bad for Gotham City in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012), wait until you see the latest Batman trailer.
For 85 years, Bruce Wayne/Batman (also known as The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader, and, less popularly, The Bat of Gotham) has stalked the streets of Gotham City, hunting down common thugs and the criminally insane in an effort to make his home city safer.
But while there have been countless versions of the iconic, cowl-and-cape-wearing, crime-fighting vigilante in the eight-and-a-half decades since his debut in “Detective Comics #27” (1939), his stories have spanned every single form of entertainment media.
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The Batman franchise is similar to James Bond in that it will always introduce new portrayals of the character, whether in comic books, novels, movies, cartoons, or games. There’s no corner of Gotham that won’t keep giving us new versions of the Dark Knight.
Of course, there are already plenty of new iterations in development (with the new DC Universe’s The Brave and the Bold being the biggest of any project), but several previous iterations of Bruce Wayne/Batman are now set to return in separate upcoming projects.
However, while the likes of Robert Pattinson are gearing up to return in upcoming sequels, another iteration of the Dark Knight is also ready to stalk the streets of Gotham City once again, as a new entry in the popular “Arkham” video game series is now in the works.
In May, we got our first look at the virtual reality (VR) game “Batman: Arkham Shadow” (2024), which follows “Batman: Arkham Asylum” (2009), “Batman: Arkham City” (2011), “Batman: Arkham Origins” (2013), and “Batman: Arkham Knight” (2015).
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While it isn’t the first VR entry in the series (that honor goes to 2016’s “Batman: Arkham VR”), this one is made for the state-of-the-art VR headset, Meta Quest 3, and will give players an open-world re-creation of the Caped Crusader’s crime-ridden metropolis.
Now, “Batman: Arkham Shadow” has another trailer that recently emerged from this year’s Summer Game Fest. However, while it’s strictly cinematic like the first, this one teases the virtual reality game’s “Official Story.” Check it out below, per GameSpot:
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Per meta.com, the synopsis for the game reads, “Evil stalks the streets. Gotham City is in danger. And you’re the only one who can save it.” Evil is certainly present in the new trailer — the entire city is burning while scores of criminals are running riot on the streets.
The game looks stunning, but also very dark. This time, the Dark Knight will go up against the lesser-known Rogues Gallery villain, The Rat King (known as the The Ratcatcher in previous iterations). “When the Bat falls, the rats rise,” he says at the end of the trailer.
Previous “Arkham” enemies have included The Joker, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Deathstroke, The Riddler, and Ra’s al Ghul.
“Arkham Shadow” will be released in the fall of 2024. But, as we’ve already mentioned, if you’re frustrated that there isn’t an actual release date available yet, there are plenty of new Batman stories are on the way — more than you can shake a smoke-pellet at.
More Batman To Come
Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne/Batman will return on October 15 in a “direct sequel” to Tim Burton’s iconic film Batman (1989). The sequel will see the return of several characters, such as Michelle Pfeiffer’s Selina Kyle and Christopher Walken’s Max Shreck.
Robert Pattinson is returning in Matt Reeves’ The Batman — Part II (2026), which releases on October 2, 2026. A television series titled The Penguin (2024) — set in the same universe with the return of Colin Farrell as the titular gangster — is heading for Max.
There’s also a brand-new animated television series titled Batman: Caped Crusader (2024) in development from executive producers Matt Reeves and JJ Abrams.
While not a Batman movie per se, Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), which sees the return of Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/Joker, will be released in theaters on October 4. The film is described as “a jukebox musical” and will feature Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga).
Meanwhile, a Batman reboot, The Brave and the Bold (TBA), is in the works. It will form part of the new DC Universe (DC) that’s being developed by DC Studios’ CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran and will feature a new Bruce Wayne/Batman actor.
Will you be playing “Batman: Arkham Shadow”? Share your thoughts with Inside the Magic in the comments below!