BvS "Gotham" the TV Series coming to Fox -- how will effect the new Batman?

[NosfeRomas]

I could see them doing something with Victor Zsaz. He is probably the best cop show material villain. Very disturbing, you are doing some fan service and you are setting up a big mystery and a good show. Victor Zsasz, the Penguin, Calendar Man, The Ventriloquist, none of them need Batman to exist in order to be criminals. By using them you are making the show interesting, you keep the fans happy and the GA and you haven't even used your big guns except maybe from Penguin.

 

[Britannic]

Too bad we cant turn back time, I would watch young Gary Oldman in a noir style Gotham series

http://garyoldmangifs.tumblr.com/post/62556290268/alwaysrandom-susurrus-young-gary-oldman-as

 

[Mach2Infinity]

I just can't get behind the idea of making a show about Gotham, Gordon and the city's more flamboyant villains without Batman. It'll leave a hole in the cloud bigger than a batsignal. It reminds me a little of Smallville where they had the "no tights, no flight" rule and so had to come up with silly ways of why Clark couldn't do certain things.

 

[godisawesome]

They'd really have to embrace the sheer crappyness of Gotham to make this show unique. I'm talking every cop on the force of any importance not named Gordon or Bullock being at least complicit in corruption. I'm talking making a crime war between the Red Hood gang and the Falcone Empire a good thing because at least some of the city's most dangerous criminals are dying. And the type of situation where people are actually okay with Odonnell and Bullock being dirty cops themselves to get stuff done.

So yeah, this needs a bold approach to really work.

 

[titansupes]

Except Clark was in his late teens in Smallville.

And? He wasn't supposed to face Bizarro, or Zod, or Faora, certainly not Darkseid or DOOMSDAY when he was a teen and pre-Superman. Yet that happened anyway.

Bruce Wayne would be 8-10 in this tv show if Gordon is investigating the Wayne murders. In what way does it make sense for them to introduce heroes and villains we know and love before Bruce Wayne is even old enough to start TRAINING to be Batman?

Because the network/production company wants a successful TV show that exploits the very popular Batman mythos without including Batman in any obvious way, since the movie division has first rights to him. The same way they weren't going to make Clark into Superman until the end of the run... But had him fight every major villain, team up with Kara, talk to cloned Jor-EL and Lara and form a JUSTICE LEAGUE anyway. The same way they re-envisioned him from being the 'first costumed hero' to being 'the greatest costumed hero with the balls to show his face to the world' and actively used those other heroes to inspire him to do so. Rather than Batman being the event that brings the freaks to Gotham, they can introduce those villains and have Batman (eventually, inevitably) show up as a direct response to them.

It's not ideal, nor my preference. But it's completely workable.

I really like the idea from the other poster (about a shadowy Year One story with flashbacks) and hope that's how it goes. But who knows.

 

[Afrobean]

And? He wasn't supposed to face Bizarro, or Zod, or Faora, certainly not Darkseid or DOOMSDAY when he was a teen and pre-Superman. Yet that happened anyway.

The difference is that he wasn't "Superman", but it was still Superman. Clark didn't call himself Superman, but it's still ultimately the character.

This show won't feature Batman. It won't feature Bruce Wayne, and if it starts with the murder of his parents, he would be a child anyway. Teenage Clark got into some Superboy-esque adventures and later was Superman without ever being called it, but eight-year-old Bruce won't be doing anything of the sort in this show. You can have a show where teenage Clark faces off against Brainiac a lot easier than you can have a show where preteen Bruce faces off against the Joker.

the network/production company wants a successful TV show that exploits the very popular Batman mythos without including Batman in any obvious way

This is easily possible. Birds of Prey explicitly referenced Batman, but he was not a main character. Smallville exploited more than a few Batman-related characters and made tongue-in-cheek references to Batman. Arrow has gone even further with using characters traditionally connected to Batman, in some ways putting Oliver in what could just as easily be Bruce's place in a story.

At various points in the past, shows starring a young Dick Grayson, Nightwing, or a Gotham Central adaptation were considered for development. Any of them would be a way to touch the Batman mythos, but none of them requires Batman to actually appear in the show. Smart writing could even have them smartly alluding to the Bat without ever even talking about him directly. Heck, even Arrow has refrained from having the hero take the name "Green Arrow", usually going by "the vigilante", "the hood", or now, just the "Arrow". The animated Teen Titans was initially not allowed to use the Batman character, but told many stories featuring their version of Robin, occasionally referencing his past with Batman without actually referring directly to the character. It's possible to touch Batman's corner of the DC universe without him ever appearing or being named, and considering that Gotham Central and Dick Grayson were previously looked at for TV shows, I know that the producers should know it's possible.

 

[The Guard]

I seriously doubt they would bother to make a GOTHAM show and not include some of the Gotham. My guess is we'll see some of the pre/early Batman villains rather than the well known ones, who may show up in a different capacity. But we'll likely see villains like The Reaper, lesser known rogues, etc.

 

[Rorschach2012]

I kinda wish this won't happen. Keep Batman and Gotham on film only, let TV expose the world to the rest of the DCU outside of Gotham.

 

[RAE072]

I seriously doubt they would bother to make a GOTHAM show and not include some of the Gotham. My guess is we'll see some of the pre/early Batman villains rather than the well known ones, who may show up in a different capacity. But we'll likely see villains like The Reaper, lesser known rogues, etc.

Which I wouldn't mind at all. Do it like Beware the Batman. I like seeing the lesser known villains show up.

But Batman would still have to be present(I know you're not saying he shouldn't be, just expanding on the thought). Supervillains of ANY capacity, well known or not, have to be too much for the GCPD to handle for Batman to have any relevance at all. In general, not just in the context of the show.

A GCPD show without Batman or villains is just, like I said, Law and Order. Been done to death. Boring.

A GCPD show without Batman but WITH villains makes the show one of two things: Over the first time a villain even remotely similar to, say, Scarecrow shows up, or, the other option, renders the idea/need of Batman completely pointless if the GCPD are capable of bringing in supervillains. I mean, even the C-D listers are still way too much for the corrupt and inefficient GCPD to handle.

This show cannot be or be at all interesting and different without Batman and his villains, lesser known or not, in the periphery.