Boardwalk Empire’ Creator Exited ‘The Batman’ Spinoff About Gotham Police After Matt Reeves ‘Wasn’t Feeling It’: ‘I Worked on It for Awhile

By Zack Sharf

According To The variety “Boardwalk Empire” creator and “The Sopranos” executive producer Terence Winter is finally opening up about “The Batman” spinoff series centered on the Gotham police department that failed to get off the ground. Winter and “The Batman” director Matt Reeves were developing the show prior to the release of the 2022 comic book film, but Winter exited a few months after the show’s announcement. He was later replaced by Joe Barton before the entire show fell apart.

“The idea was that we were going to do a 1970s cop show— something that felt like Sidney Lumet’s 1981 crime and police drama ‘Prince of the City,’ but in the Gotham City Police Department,” Winter said during an interview on The Playlist’s “Bingeworthy” podcast. “It was going to have that [‘70s] feel. It was going to be a present-day cop who is like a third-generation Gotham City cop and Gotham City was largely corrupt. And this is the guy we meet in the present day who’s realizing that he’s kind of on the wrong side. The Batman was somebody that lived in that world, but you never really saw him. And it was really all about the police department and sort of this guy.”

Winter said that at some point Reeves “wasn’t feeling it” in regards to what the duo was cooking up for the series, which resulted in Winter’s exit from the project. The Gotham PD show was ultimately scrapped in favor of developing a show about Colin Farrell’s Penguin, who debuted in “The Batman.” That series, officially titled “The Penguin,” is now airing on HBO and Max. “That’s great, good for them,” Winter said. “Like I said, you know, it was Matt’s idea originally, and, you know, more power to [him]. Sometimes, you’re in sync creatively; sometimes, you’re not. Or you get off on the wrong foot thinking, ‘Oh, we should do this but you know what, this is just not really working.’ Also, because there was ‘Gotham,’ the show ‘Gotham’ certainly took place in the Gotham City Police Department. [It] kind of stepped on the toes of our idea a little bit, even though ours was going to be totally very different. I think ‘Penguin’ is great. I think they did a great job.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly earlier this year, Reeves said that the Gotham PD show as well as another spinoff series being developed about Arkham Asylum were dropped after HBO executives suggested to focus more on “marquee characters” from the Batman universe.

“They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters,’” Reeves said, adding that elements from the axed Gotham PD show ended up finding their way into “The Penguin.”