Credit: DC / Warner Bros.While the Batman franchise will continue across multiple media formats, from movie sequels to reboots and comic books to video games, it has been revealed that three projects have been canceled.
Canceled Dark Knight Project
Recently, it was reported that a video game tied to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) had been in development during the early 2000s. The project, based around the critically acclaimed box-office hit starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, was being developed by Pandemic Studios Brisbane and was slated to be published by Electronic Arts (EA).
Storyboard images recently surfaced on Reddit (via Vice), which revealed that the untitled Batman project would have been open world and was intended to launch alongside Nolan’s The Dark Knight in 2008. But the game was canceled months before its planned release and the developer was eventually shut down.
Now, new details of another canceled game tied to The Dark Knight have been revealed.
Canceled Dark Knight Project No. 2
Footage from a Batman game dubbed Project Apollo from developer Monolith Productions has been recovered online from once-deleted internal game files from 2009–2010 by archivist MrTalida and uploaded to the Internet Archive.
Though it was originally revealed in 2019, new footage includes in-engine tests and early gameplay focused on sound, music, and mechanics, and shows the iconic Tumbler (the Batmobile from The Dark Knight trilogy) driving through sprawling Gotham environments.
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Like Pandemic’s title, Monolith’s game would have also been open world, where players could have traveled by gliding, grappling and the Batmobile, much like the Arkham games.
Historical reports claim that the project had been in development for about 18 months before being canceled, which reportedly came because publisher Warner Bros. Games insisted on Christopher Nolan’s approval for a game tied to his films, which he never gave.
Monolith Productions went on to develop the Lord of the Rings open-world game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, which reused certain elements from Project Apollo.
Batman: Arkham Shadow 2
Earlier this month, we also learned that a new Batman game has been canceled. A planned sequel to 2024’s Batman: Arkham Shadow, which was released exclusively for the Meta Quest 3, has been shelved, according to a report from Aftermath, which cites Meta’s closure of multiple VR studios and layoffs within its Reality Labs division as the primary reason.
While this is all disappointing news for Batman fans, fortunately, each cancelation is unrelated to any other. There are also still plenty of released Batman video games to choose from, including all the Arkham titles, all of which offer their own sandbox versions of Gotham.
A New Batman Game Is Coming Soon
For fans eager to experience the Caped Crusader in interactive form in a new video game, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is still scheduled for release on May 29, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with a later release on Nintendo Switch 2.
The game allows players to explore Bruce Wayne’s journey and encounter a variety of allies and villains from Batman’s long history.
Upcoming Batman Content in Other Media
Batman’s presence on the big screen is also set to continue.
A Batman: Knightfall animated film series is expected to arrive sometime later this year, while Matt Reeves’ The Batman — Part II is slated for release in late 2027.
The DCU reboot The Brave and the Bold, which will form part of DC Studios’ shared universe, remains in development, although its casting and release date remain unknown.
Would you have liked to play an open-world Batman game set in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight universe? Let us know in the comments down below!