The last game of the successful Arkham game series, Arkham Knight, arrived two years ago. Since then, fans have desperately waited for the new installment. Even though Rocksteady Games did launch the Arkham VR last year, it was more of an appeasement for the VR enthusiasts and a base of the PlayStation VR, than a full-fledged sequel.
The series that began in 2009 quickly established a huge fanbase who couldn’t wait for a sequel. Unfortunately, Rocksteady had somewhat set up in the past that the franchise would conclude with the Arkham Knight. However, some clues dropped last month by the company and Gaz Deaves (PR manager, Rocksteady Games) does hint at a possible sequel that might be announced very soon, it was expected in E3, but that didn’t happen.
Something unusual was noticed in the official subreddit of Arkham series. When a user asked about the future of the franchise, the Reddit user Rocksteady Gaz (who is actually Gaz Deaves) replied something interesting.
Now, this could mean two things. Either it is a confirmation of a sequel featuring the Man of Steel, or a whole new game with Superman as the central character.
In all sense, the latter seems more probable. The Arkham games did establish the existence of Superman without ever featuring him. These hints included the LexCorp logos in Gotham and few dialogues thrown in the gameplay such as:
- “That’ll teach him. Who does he think he is anyway? Superman?”
- “Hah! No way man. You think the Bat is tough to kill? You don’t wanna go up against the other guy in a cape.”
- “You know the only thing that’s missing is if that freak from Metropolis flew in here.”
These dialogues did make it clear that Superman exists in the Arkham universe. No clues are given regarding his whereabouts during the events in Gotham. However, there are multiple theories regarding this, most of which are covered by Reddit user MercinwithaMouth. The key points included:
- An allegedly leaked screenshot of the Montreal Superman game back in 2014
- Concept arts for Supermanand Brainiac
- Title for the art, called “Superman: Unbound”
It must be noted that though the title is shared by a DC animated movie featuring Superman, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Rocksteady made a game with the same plot.
The future of Arkham series
Taking a deeper look at Gaz’s subReddit replies, it does seem plausible that the new game might be set in the Arkhamverse. It is even possible that the game would be set in the same world as Arkham series, which keeps the chances of Batman making an appearance alive.
Here is an excerpt from the subreddit conversation:
Breaking Garrick:“Whoa. I didn’t think you’d reply! I was just hoping for some discussion. Judging by the smiley face, we’re totally getting a Superman game, right? Right?!”
RocksteadyGaz:“Haha you know how Sefton feels about spoilers… but when it’s time, this place will be one of the first to find out.”
It is clear that while Gaz is dodging from definite answers, he does not deny them either. This pattern was later seen with the official Twitter handle of Rocksteady Games too.
Gaz took the efforts to answer some more queries on Reddit, especially when a user asked whether the studio is teasing at something. To this, Gaz replied:
“Haha we’re not teasing anything guys. Just making sure you know we’re still here. Ever watchful. Ever vigilant.”
While being an interesting statement, the reply also resembled the tone of the Dark Knight. Does that mean that we will finally get a Superman/Batman crossover game, or would we have to content ourselves with only the Man of Steel? Only time will tell.
