Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter has spoken out about the incredible idea behind his scrapped spin-off of The Batman – and why it didn't lead anywhere.
"The idea was that we were going to do a '70s cop show – something that felt like ['80s crime drama] Prince of the City, but in the Gotham City Police Department," Winter told The Playlist.
Winter continued, "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 Gotham PD-set spin-off was one of a handful set to branch off from The Batman. The Penguin, starring Colin Farrell's returning mobster, was the only one that got its wings, with an Arkham Asylum spin-off also mooted but later canned.
Winter, though, said he worked on his spin-off "for a while" but The Batman director Matt Reeves "wasn't feeling it."
"Sometimes, you’re in sync creatively; sometimes, you’re not. Or you get off on the wrong foot thinking, ‘Oh, we should do this and go, Oh, you know what, this is just not really working," Winter added.
While The Penguin has certainly been a success so far, we can't help but wonder where a police spin-off with Winter (who also proved a huge creative force on The Sopranos) could have gone. If nothing else, it could have explored a similar path to Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka's acclaimed Gotham Central comic series, which served as a look at Gotham's criminal underbelly through the lens of a police procedural drama.
The Batman 2, meanwhile, is set to begin filming next year. Matt Reeves has also confirmed plans for a trilogy are still in place.
