The Batman HBO Max spinoff series has a new showrunner after Terence Winter’s exit. Joe Barton, writer/creator of Giri/Haji, is taking the reins, Deadline report. Winter, who created Boardwalk Empire and wrote/produced The Sopranos, reportedly exited the series due to creative differences.
The spinoff will be a prequel to the Matt Reeves directed The Batman, which is due for a theatrical release in 2022. While takes place during the second year of the titular vigilante’s crime-fighting career, the series will be set a year earlier, and will focus on corruption in the Gotham City Police Department.
Considering the show sounds like a gritty crime drama, Winter seemed an excellent choice to act as showrunner, which made the news of his departure so surprising. Luckily, Barton seems a great choice to take over – Giri/Haji, a Netflix/BBC crime drama set in London and Tokyo, was highly praised upon its release. He has also written on another Netflix/BBC project, Troy: Fall of a City, and wrote on AMC/Channel 4 sci-fi Humans. Barton is also writing and executive producing the series Half Bad for Netflix, with Andy Serkis serving as a co-executive producer.
Details on The Batman spinoff are currently scarce – there’s no release date, and no casting info. As the film has been delayed to March 2022, we’re probably unlikely to get any more updates on the series soon.
The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as the eponymous Bruce Wayne, along with Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, and Paul Dano as the Riddler. It has a screenplay penned by Reeves, Peter Craig, and Mattson Tomlin (who also wrote Netflix’s Project Power).
