There’s a video game coming out called Gotham Knights. It’s about some kids from the Batman universe who band together after Batman is killed. There’s also a TV show coming out called Gotham Knights. It’s about some kids from the Batman universe who band together after Batman is killed. They have nothing in common.
The game is due out towards the end of 2022. The TV show is airing in 2023. That sure does make it sound like they’re both very related to each other, but no, the developers of the video game would like everyone to know that is absolutely not the case:
I can understand the legal reasons for this tweet. Despite the numerous superficial similarities, there are differences between the two projects. For starters, the game is based on the Batman: Gotham Knights comics and follows roughly the same plot, in that the kids banding together are all Batman’s former proteges, like Nightwing and Batgirl.
The show, meanwhile, is not based on the comics, and is about Batman’s adopted son teaming up with...the children of Batman’s enemies when they’re all framed for a murder they didn’t commit. Having two projects with the same name but different storylines sure seems like a licensing/marketing screw-up somewhere at DC, because despite tweets like this there will always be folks out there who will either get the two mixed up, or think one is based on the other.
I can also understand the emotional reasons for that tweet, though, because the Gotham Knights TV series dropped its first trailer last week, and it looks like complete dogshit! It would be one thing to have your game be confusingly associated with a TV show on principle, but to have it sharing oxygen with a comic book version of Disney’s Descendants must be incredibly frustrating:
Hopefully the fact the game is out in October 2022 (on PS5, Xbox X/S and PC), while the show isn’t due to air until 2023, will give it some breathing room.