With less than two weeks to go before its release, Gotham Knights fans are being asked to dodge spoilers online after a seemingly major leak. Some official art books for the game appear to have shipped early, and at least one player started sharing screenshots of the game’s alleged ending on Reddit. At least one developer behind the comic book beat ’em up has since reacted on social media with frustration.
“I can’t begin to understand why would anyone spoil a story (whether it’s 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-like skill trees and loot, some recent previews for Gotham Knights have pitched unravelling the mystery at the centre of its narrative as another major focal point. Now, with the official artbook seemingly out ahead of schedule, leakers are starting to spoil some of those story threads online.
Spoiler Warning: We’re going to discuss one of the major apparent reveals below. If you don’t want to be spoiled I’m not sure why you clicked on an article about Gotham Knights spoilers. But definitely don’t keep reading past this point.
The setup for Gotham Knights is that Batman has been killed in a terrorist explosion, and his surrogate family, including Nightwing, Jason Todd, Robin, and Batgirl, are tasked with trying to regain 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 one fan who asked during a Q&A that yes, Batman really was dead.
But the apparent art book reveals that’s not necessarily the case. Screenshots of two pages making the rounds online reveal Bruce is actually resurrected at some point by Talia al Ghul using the Lazarus Pit. Are you shocked? I know I am. The art book goes on to detail an apparent boss fight with Batman where the player has to dodge uninterruptible attacks while also using speech prompts to try and bring a berserk caped crusader to his senses.
What happens next isn’t exactly clear, and there is already fan disagreement. One interpretation is that Batman dies once again while trying to protect his surrogate family from Talia. Another is that he survives, allowing for some interesting possibilities in the endgame and post-launch updates. It’s worth noting, however, that Gotham Knights is not officially part of the Batman: Arkham universe. That continuity will re-emerge in 2023’s Suicide Squad. In theory then, 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 leak out of context ahead of the full game’s release. 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 does actually appear in the game at some point. WB’s Batman games have a history of hijinks like these, and beloved comic book heroes never stay dead for long. Batman in particular once propelled his consciousness through time and space after being omega-beamed by Darkseid.
In the meantime, one of the users who posted the artbook screenshots on the Gotham Knights subreddit has since nuked their account. The subreddit has also banned all additional spoiler posts, demanding users funnel them into a single thread. WB also seems to have been successful in getting at least a few of the big YouTube videos initially discussing the leaks taken down. Gotham Knights was originally supposed to launch on October 25, but in an unusual move actually had its release date bumped up a week early. Everyone will now have a chance to see what happens to Batman for real on October 21.
Leave a Reply