With Matt Reeves‘ iteration of the Dark Knight front-and-center on the big screen, the Batman franchise still has no concrete plans for the character’s official introduction into the James Gunn-crafted DC Universe. Fans are, unsurprisingly, on the edge of their seat wondering how Batman will fare in the current cinematic adventures. The character obviously exists, as referenced in Blue Beetle and is briefly seen in Creature Commandos, but we have yet to see him properly introduced in live-action in Gunn’s DCU. As we continue to wait, perhaps DC Studios could look to video games for inspiration on how to update the comic book character for the small screen; a game like Batman: Arkham Asylummay prove a worthy foundation.
‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ Is a Stellar Adaptation That Gets the Dark Knight Right
The first in a series of games featuring Kevin Conroy‘s Caped Crusader, Arkham Asylum changed the entire direction of Batman-based video games. No longer did they need to pull from popular animated series’ or feature films, but rather, Rocksteady Games ripped directly from the comics as veteran Batman scribe Paul Dini (who also penned one of the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series) reworked the material to make something special. Arkham Asylum, in particular, was novel for its exceptional gameplay, which included the introduction of “detective mode,” and a standalone story that felt true not just to Batman as we knew him in popular culture, but as we have read him in comics for years. With Robert Pattinson busy playing Batman on the big screen, perhaps the best thing that DC Studios could do for the official DCU version of the hero is to use Arkham Asylum as inspiration for a TV adaptation — making it the first real live-action Batman TV show since the ’60s. (And before y’all mention Gotham, that doesn’t count.)
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.
Aside from the stellar vocal performances by Conroy and Mark Hamill as the Joker, Arkham Asylum thrives because it highlights Batman’s strengths as a fighter, detective, and costumed vigilante while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of each member of his rogues’ gallery. Joker isn’t the only villain to get his due here, as heavyweights like Poison Ivy, Riddler, Bane, and Scarecrow all enjoy the limelight alongside B-listers like Victor Zsasz, the Ventriloquist and Scarface, and Killer Croc. And that’s not including all the other rogues mentioned throughout. Arkham Asylum, in some ways, plays as a “Batman’s greatest hits” adventure that does what many of the other live-action takes at the time — from Tim Burton‘s version to Christopher Nolan‘s — simply couldn’t or wouldn’t do. It felt like you were playing through an issue of Detective Comics or an entire Batman graphic novel rather than grounding the hero in a reality slightly adjacent to our own.
There’s a reason that Arkham Asylum spawned several sequels. Arkham City, Arkham Knight, and the prequel Arkham Origins all continued the trend by elaborating on Batman’s world and reminding players how expansive Gotham City can be (let’s just ignore Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League). The game itself leans into the comic continuity for inspiration, including elements of Batman’s history andsupporting cast members that don’t always make their way into feature film adaptations. For instance, Barbara Gordon (Kimberly Brooks) is Oracle rather than Batgirl in this iteration. The Arkham games assume that you already have the basics of Batman down, and it continues on with the Dark Knight Detective as if this is just another day in Gotham. It’s for this reason that a television adaptation may just be the best route for our hero.
Batman’s DC Universe Debut Ought to Be Based on the ‘Arkham’ Games
While another Batman movie is never a bad thing, to do something like Batman: Arkham Asylum justice in this new live-action DC Universe would require more time. Think of each level of the game as its own individual episode of a live-action HBO Batman series, complete with additional character backstory, detective work, and pulse-pounding fight sequences that would put even that Ben Affleck warehouse scene from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to shame. A series wouldn’t just be able to examine each of Batman’s rogues, but it would allow the Caped Crusader time to get to know the audience as well. This, too, would separate him from Pattinson’s adaptation and could live up to what fans have long hoped for in modern post-Nolan depictions of the character.
Given that Marvel heroes like Daredevil and The Punisher have thrived in long-form series on streaming platforms, there’s no reason that Batman couldn’t do the same. Gotham has likewise proven that the hero’s rogues can work on television, and The Penguin also made a strong case for bringing Gotham to the small screen. An Arkham-style Batman show that is unashamed of its comic book source material but still offers a gritty take on the Dark Knight is a powerful idea, one that just about any fan of the games, comics, or character could get behind. Perhaps an Arkham-style series could even pull from shows like 24for inspiration by adding a countdown and raising the stakes for Batman as he fights to survive his way through Arkham.
Of course, we could always just go back and play Batman: Arkham Asylum again, but that doesn’t solve the problem of the lack of Batman in the current DCU. With several Superman-related productions already released or in the works, and B-characters like John Cena‘s Peacemaker and the Creature Commandos making rounds on HBO Max, where’s the love for DC’s most bankable hero? Perhaps the horror-centric Clayface could be a lead-in for an Arkham Asylum-inspired Batman series, setting up not only the titular madhouse but also Batman’s role in putting his enemies there. We can only hope.
