Giri/Haji creator Joe Barton is heading to Gotham to take over showrunning duties on HBO Max’s upcoming The Batman TV series.
The British writer has joined the series as showrunner and exec producer following the departure of Terence Winter in November.
It was understood that the Boardwalk Empire creator left the series, which is a companion to Matt Reeves Batman feature film, over creative differences.
Barton is best known for creating Tokyo and London-set crime drama Giri/Haji for Netflix and the BBC. He also wrote on AMC and Channel 4 sci-fi drama Humans and Netflix and BBC epic drama Troy: Fall of a City. Other projects include Sky thriller Extinction and an adaptation of Sally Green’s Half Bad with Andy Serkis for Netflix.
HBO Max gave a series commitment to the project last summer. It is designed to build upon the film’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City, launching a new Batman universe across multiple platforms. Focused on the Gotham police department, the series will extend the world established in the movie and further explore the myriad complex characters of Gotham.
Reeves in August said that the series is a prequel to his Batman Year Two movie, with the show set in Batman Year One when a “masked vigilante…starts to unsettle the city”. The series will zero in on the city’s corruption that “goes back many years” and is told from the POV of a crooked cop, Reeves said in August.
It comes from Reeves’ 6th & Idaho in association with Warner Bros. Television. Reeves, Barton and The Batman producer Dylan Clark are executive producers, alongside 6th & Idaho’s Daniel Pipski and Adam Kassan. 6th & Idaho’s Rafi Crohn is a co-executive producer. It is based on characters created for DC by Bob Kane with Bill Finger.
Barton is represented by ICM Partners, Grandview and Independent Talent Group.