Amid major upheaval at Warner Bros. Games, early development footage of a long-lost Batman title, set within the universe of Christopher Nolan's acclaimed films, has resurfaced online, offering a tantalising glimpse at what might have been.
The Lost Project: 'Project Apollo' and the Nolan Connection
This cancelled game, known internally as Project Apollo, was in development during the early 2010s at Monolith Productions, the studio famed for the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor series. The project was definitively not part of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham franchise, which was active at the time. Instead, it was designed to exist squarely within the gritty, realistic world of Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.
Archived materials, recovered and shared by preservationist MrTalida on Bluesky, show clear cinematic influences. This version of Batman sported a suit reminiscent of the films, and developers had planned for players to drive the armoured Tumbler version of the Batmobile. Early videos detail prototype mechanics for combat, stealth, and the use of smoke bombs.
Corporate Turmoil and Cancellation
The emergence of this footage coincides with a period of significant instability for Warner Bros. Games. Aside from the breakout success of Hogwarts Legacy, the division has seen numerous high-profile releases underperform, leading to studio closures last year. This turmoil culminated in the recent announcement that the entire gaming division is being sold to Netflix.
Monolith Productions itself was shut down in 2025 after its Wonder Woman project was scrapped. The cancellation of Project Apollo years earlier may have been influenced by internal politics. Reports suggest Rocksteady, guardians of the Arkham series, were unlikely to have welcomed a competing internal Batman project and may have lobbied for its cancellation.
Despite its demise, a Did You Know Gaming report indicates some of Project Apollo's concepts eventually found their way into Monolith's 2017 release, Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
A Recurring Theme for the Dark Knight
This is not the only Batman game to vanish into development hell. Prior to creating Gotham Knights, Warner Bros. Montréal was reportedly working on a title starring Batman's son, Damian Wayne. The caped crusader's digital future now rests on a new Lego Batman game and rumours of a fresh project from Rocksteady following the commercial failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League—a project whose fate is now uncertain under new ownership.
The recovery of Project Apollo serves as a fascinating artefact from a bygone era of Warner Bros., highlighting both its ambitious past and the volatile nature of the games industry, where promising concepts can be shelved by corporate strategy and internal rivalry.
