A few days ago, we got the first trailer for upcoming superhero game Gotham Knights. Heavily influenced by Rocksteady’s beloved Batman: Arkham trilogy, Gotham Knights will follow Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing and Red Hood as they protect Gotham from a criminal onslaught following the death of Bruce Wayne and the disappearance of Batman.
Interestingly, however, the Caped Crusader is not the only old-school protector of Gotham City that WB Games Montréal chose to kill off for this project. During the trailer, a postmortem video recording of Bruce quickly and casually states that, at some point in time, Jim Gordon has also been killed. How long ago this happened before the game’s actual story is unclear, but even so, its ramifications on the plot are sure to be tremendous.
As Bruce warns his disciples, they’ll not be able to trust anybody, including the GCPD. As those who played through Batman: Arkham Origins will know, Bruce and the cops started off on a bad foot, too, until Jim stood up for the vigilante and got the rest of the organization to trust him.
With their old commissioner gone, the GCPD appears to have been taken over by some dubious person. Although the trailer didn’t explicitly state who that is, fans have begun to theorize that it may be the Court of Owls. The sinister organization of assassins is set up to play a major role in Gotham Knights, and considering how the image of an owl appears to have been imprinted on the GCPD badges in the footage we got, they may well have extended their influence to include Gotham’s police force.
As GameRant explains:
As the reveal trailer for Gotham Knights continues, Batman’s voice over explains to the Bat-family that the villains of Gotham will take advantage of the city now that Batman is gone and the Gotham City Police Department can’t be trusted. In this universe, Jim Gordon is said to be dead, so the Bat-family has no allies inside the GCPD. This story detail is glossed over without an explanation of how, but Reddit user u/McManus26 pointed out that the GCPD badge has an owl sitting on top of it. This could be a reference to the Court of Owls, one of the main enemies the Bat-family will fight in Gotham Knights, being in control of the GCPD and possibly eliminating Jim Gordon and ushering in their own Commissioner.
The Court of Owls are a secret group that has operated for centuries within Gotham City and attempt to use their group of high-ranking Gothamites to gain control over other parts of the city. So with the Court of Owls having their fierce talons in everything throughout Gotham City, it isn’t a big leap to think they had some kind on involvement in the killing of Jim Gordon to help solidify control of the GCPD.
It’s certainly an interesting theory, but until we learn more, it’ll remain as just that – a theory. Tell us, though, who do you think killed Jim Gordon in Gotham Knights? Let us know in the comments section below.
