Promotional art shows Gotham Knights heroes walking down a rainy street.
With less than two weeks to go before release, Gotham Knights fans are being asked to dodge spoilers online after what appears to be a major leak. Some official art books for the game appear to have shipped early, and at least one player started sharing screenshots of the alleged ending of the game on Reddit. At least one developer behind the Beat ’em up comic book has since reacted in frustration on social media.
“I can’t understand why anyone would spoil a story (be it a game, a movie, a book, whatever) for others,” tweeted Fleur Marty, the game’s executive producer at Warner Bros. Games Montreal, on October 7. In addition to co-op multiplayer and Diablo-style skilltrees and loot, some recent previews for Gotham Knights have placed mystery unraveling at the center of the story as another major focus. With the official artbook coming out seemingly ahead of schedule, leakers are starting to spoil some of those story threads online.
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Spoiler Warning: We’re going to discuss one of the major apparent revelations below. If you don’t want to be spoiled, I’m not sure why you clicked on an article about Gotham Knights spoilers. But be sure not to read beyond this point.
The setup for Gotham Knights is that Batman was killed in a terrorist explosion and that his surrogate family, including Nightwing, Jason Todd, Robin and Batgirl, is tasked with regaining control of the city, now under siege by the Court of owls. Bruce Wayne’s death was teased in the trailers and discussed early on. Creative director Patrick Redding even doubled down on that plot point at San Diego Comic Con 2022, telling a fan who asked during a Q&A that yes, Batman really was dead.
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But the apparent art book reveals that this is not necessarily the case. Two-page screenshots making the rounds online reveal that at one point Bruce was actually resurrected by Talia al Ghul using the Lazarus Pit. Are you shocked? I know I am. The artbook goes on to describe an apparent boss fight with Batman, in which the player must dodge uninterrupted attacks while also using voice cues to try to bring a madcap caped crusader to his senses.
What happens next is not entirely clear and there is already controversy among the fans. One interpretation is that Batman dies again while trying to protect his surrogate family from Talia. Another is that it survives, which offers interesting possibilities in the endgame and updates after launch. However, it’s worth noting that Gotham Knights is not officially part of the Batman: Arkham universe. That continuity will resurface in 2023’s Suicide Squad. So, in theory, WB Montreal can do whatever it wants with Batman in the Gotham Knights timeline.
A major potential spoiler for the game, it’s understandable why developers would be frustrated to see their work leaked out of context before the full game came out. As a longtime Batman fan and someone who’s played the entire Arkham trilogy plus WB Montreal’s Arkham Origins, it’s not at all surprising that Batman actually appears in the game at some point. WB’s Batman games have a history of these kinds of jokes, and beloved comic book heroes never stay dead for long. Batman, in particular, once propelled his consciousness through time and space after being irradiated by Darkseid.
In the meantime, one of the users who posted the artbook screenshots on the Gotham Knights subreddit has since cracked their account. The subreddit has also banned all additional spoiler posts and requires users to post them in a single thread. WB also seems to have managed to get at least a couple of the big YouTube videos initially discussing the removed leaks. Gotham Knights was originally set to release on October 25, but in an unusual move, the release date had been pushed back a week earlier. Everyone now gets the chance to see what really happens to Batman on October 21.