Concept Art For The Canceled Batman: The Dark Knight Revealed

Freelance concept artist Goran Bukvic has revealed the concept art from the canceled AAA Batman: The Dark Knight game that was scrapped in 2008. The concept art reveals several characters with what seems to be an interesting look. Based on the information provided, these likely belong to the project of the same name that Pandemic Studios worked on between 2006-2008.

Batman: The Dark Knight was supposed to be an open-world game based on The Dark Knight film. Although there weren’t any official announcements for it, several unofficial rumors surfaced throughout 2007. The reports covering these unofficial rumors are nearly impossible to find as they are over a decade older. Nevertheless, the Batman Fandom contains the proper information which we will discuss.

Gary Oldman, the actor who portrayed Lt. Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, mentioned in an interview with G4 that the game will be released once the movie comes out on DVD and Blu-ray. Oldman confirmed that developers put much hard work into getting Batman’s gliding abilities to feel fluid and polished in Batman: The Dark Knight game.

Oldman refused to give the name of the developers involved in this project, but several anonymous sources revealed that it was a secret project of Pandemic Studios and EA. Unfortunately, insiders at Pandemic Studios later revealed that the game had been canceled due to running behind schedule in 2008. The Dark Knight remains to be the only film without a video game. The game was slated to release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Going back to the concept art, Goran Bukvic has given us some details on the inspirations for how the villains would have been portrayed. He mentioned, “The idea was that they should look believable and not too exaggerated, so that if you saw one of them on the street in real life, you’d buy it.” As such, the villains are not wearing the original costumes but contain the necessary details to make them easily identifiable.

Deadshot, aka “the man who never missed,” is an assassin and a member of the Suicide Squad. He has superior marksmanship and strength, making him one of the more popular supervillains and antiheroes.

Black Mask is Batman’s longtime enemy and a prominent criminal in Gotham City. His rise and fall as the president of Janus Cosmetics led him to his insane beliefs. Surprisingly, he is the only character in Bukvic’s list with many concept arts and details.

Originally a vigilante, Electrocutioner’s twisted methods of enforcing justice clashed with Batman’s, eventually making him a dangerous supervillain.

Though not a supervillain, Generic Hipster was likely made as a common enemy you would find doing small crimes in the shadows of Gotham’s streets. 

While no specific supervillain is named Italian Mob Boss in DC Comics, there is the Sicilian crime syndicate Cosa Nostra. The concept art likely belongs to the boss from one of its Five Families.

Throughout these images, you can find Goran Bukvic’s name in one of the corners, along with a date, likely the date of their creation. They were all made in the summer of 2007, and if the studio planned to release the game after the film’s DVD and Blu-ray release (December 9, 2008), we could see that Pandemic Studios was still in an early phase of concept art, and needed a lot more time for it to reach the desired state.