James Gunn Confirms The Batman Director's Arkham Asylum Series Is Set In The DCU
It looks like besides handling "The Batman Part II" and its spin-off series, "The Penguin," Matt Reeves will also be getting a set of keys to the James Gunn co-managed DC Universe, after all. Specifically ones that will open the doors to his other Batman-inspired series set in Arkham Asylum, the hotspot facility that homes all of the hero's most notorious and crazed villains.
Continuing to remain the only solid source of DC Universe details (on account of running the thing himself), James Gunn once again took to Threads to point some very keen fans in the direction he's taking the franchise, and how "The Batman" director would be helping to do so. When asked what items Reeves had on his to-do list, Gunn confirmed that "Right now Matt is producing 'Arkham' as a DCU series, so there's just the two ["The Penguin" included] for now." It sounds like an exciting challenge for the director, who will contribute to two very different iterations of the same universe in some capacity. Challenging as that may seem, Gunn's faith isn't wavering. "We love Matt as a director and producer, so he'll be producing stories both within his 'The Batman' universe and within the DCU."
Matt Reeves' Arkham Asylum could be the DCU's first horror show
So far, details on the spin-off have been just as limited as every other new superhero project being handled under the DC moniker, but "Arkham Asylum" may have been one that's been thrown around the longest. Even before "The Batman" descended on theatres in 2022, the director had plans to keep his own universe separate from DC's greater cinematic universe.
In an interview with The Cyber Nerds, Reeves revealed that a series set in "Arkham Asylum" spawned from another show focusing on Gotham City's police department. "We're actually now moving more into the realm of exactly what would happen in the world of Arkham ... almost leaning into the idea of — it's like a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham. The idea of, again the way that Gotham is a character in the movie, I really want Arkham to exist as a character, so that you go into this environment and encounter these characters in a way that feels really fresh."
Setting it in the DCU allows more fantastical villains like Clayface, or perhaps the Man-Bat, to be held behind bars as opposed to the grounded types that are already established with Paul Dano's The Riddler and Barry Keoghan's Joker. Fans will just have to wait and see how Reeve's integrates his style alongside the more super elements of DC.