RUMOR: The Batman Is Inspired By The Arkham Games

4chan is at it again.

With Wonder Woman reigning supreme at the box office – for the record, Patty Jenkins’ DC origin movie has racked up $652 million worldwide, and is now the third highest-grossing domestic film of 2017 behind Beauty and the Beast and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – the DC Extended Universe has been thrust under the microscope once again, and 4chan has relayed the latest helping of DC-related speculation for us to dissect.

Coming to us by way of Reddit, before we get into things, it’s important to stress that 4chan’s report ought to be filed firmly in the rumor cabinet for now – remember, Warner Bros. plans to keep a lid on its release plans for the likes of The Batman, The Flash, and Gotham City Sirens until Justice League swoops into theatres in November. Nevertheless, the rumor mill continues to operate at full tilt, and one possible nugget of information concerns Matt Reeves’ embryonic spinoff featuring the World’s Greatest Detective.

Without an exact release date to report at this time, there’s still much we don’t know about The Batman – ditto for the potential involvement of Josh Gad as The Penguin – but 4chan’s findings go on to claim that the project is still on schedule, with a 2019 release being eyed. Not only that, but we’re also hearing that the plot is inspired by the Arkham games, with things kicking off after a massive breakout at Arkham Asylum orchestrated by none other than Deathstroke.

Apparently, the plan is to keep most of Ben Affleck and and Geoff Johns’ story in place, with Chris Terrio putting his own little spin on it. There’s also mention that the script will involve most of the major Batman villains, something we’ve heard on numerous occasions now. That’s largely due to Reeves, who wants to make a larger scale film with all the big name antagonists. Of course, that remains unconfirmed, but several reports point to it being the case.

Unfortunately, with production on the Caped Crusader’s standalone outing not set to get underway until early 2018, it’ll likely be a while longer before we hear anything concrete on the film. Still, the Arkham games are certainly a good place to look for inspiration and if Affleck and Johns’ original story is being kept mostly in tact for The Batman, then we suspect that we’ll be in for quite a treat.