Prior to working on the acclaimed Lord of the Rings adventure Shadow of Mordor, Warner Bros. Games subsidiary Monolith Productions worked on an entirely different project: a Dark Knight tie-in game that would’ve starred the “Nolanverse” Batman.
The game was ultimately cancelled in favour of developing Shadow of Mordor, but as newly-uncovered footage has revealed, the game was in development for a significant amount of time before the plug was pulled.
Per new footage reportedly discovered on The Internet Archive by Twitter/X user SpideyRanger (via another user known as Back2Life), the game codenamed “Project Apollo” would have featured the Nolanverse Batman fighting crime in an open world Gotham city plagued by villains.
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The revealed footage shows Batman gliding around, wielding a grappling hook, sorting through gadgets, and activating a detective mode to analyse clues.
Perhaps most notably, the game also seemingly contains a version of the Nemesis System that debuted with Shadow of Mordor, to high critical acclaim. This system allows you to make enemies in the game’s world, and then have them remember you down the line.
According to SpideyRanger, it was hoped that this system would allow this Dark Knight tie-in to differentiate itself from the beloved Arkham games of Rocksteady Studios. Instead, it became the flagship for Shadow of Mordor, and its sequel.
The reasons for the cancellation of this Batman tie-in are not entirely clear, but per information shared by SpideyRanger and earlier details analysed by DidYouKnowGaming? it appears Warner Bros. may have been reluctant to have two different Batman game franchises on the go at once. It’s also alleged that Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan may not have supported the project, or was otherwise too busy to provide approvals.
Whatever the case, circumstances meant we never got to see the planned Dark Knight tie-in gestating at Monolith Productions. At the very least, we got the excellent Shadow of Mordor in its stead – and that game remains an all-time classic we should all talk about much, much more.
For deeper insight into Project Apollo, check out SpideyRanger’s Twitter/X thread.
