Is Batman Dead In Gotham Knights?

Is Batman dead in Gotham Knights? Gotham Knights takes place in the Batman mythos, but it is its own telling of the story. Although it has some ties to the Arkham series, mainly through sharing a developer with Arkham Origins, this game is in no way a canonical sequel to those games. So, let us examine the question, is Batman dead in Gotham Knights?

• To know the truth of the story, we are going to have to wait until the Gotham Knights release date.

Is Batman Dead In Gotham Knights?

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In short, yes he is absolutely dead. All the pre-release marketing has made it quite clear, Bruce Wayne has passed away and the Gotham Knights must take over as the main protectors of Gotham. Batman's death is core to the story of this game, he was the one who brought all of these characters together. The Knights are defined by their relationship with Batman, each in their own way.

How the Knights continue in the wake of Bruce's passing, and how they can come together as a team without their leader are undoubtedly some of the major themes of the game. As much as these characters have been molded into the people they are by Batman, it is almost more important to see what they will do without him.

The family was always meant to be Batman's legacy, people to carry on his eternal fight against crime. Batman's death is extremely important to the plot of the game, so it seems highly unlikely that there will be some kind of twist.

• We may not even get it all in one go, as apparently, Gotham Knights requires multiple playthroughs to get the full story.

Will We See Batman In Gotham Knights?

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Except that a twist is entirely possible, and in all likelihood, we can guess how it will go down. As we know, the core threat of Gotham Knights is the Court of Owls. The Court of Owls is a relatively new addition to the Batman canon, introduced in the New 52 run of Batman comics, around ten years ago. The Court is a secret society, so secret that neither billionaire, old-money socialite Bruce Wayne, nor the Great Detective and Gotham's protector, Batman had ever discovered their existence.

The purpose of the Court was to tell a story about a group so powerful and so secret, not even Batman was aware of them. They were old, and had seeped into every nook and cranny of Gotham, long before Batman came along.

The Court of Owls hold influence in every element of Gotham city, and they have their own protector, the Talon. There have been multiple Talons, each is a person chosen to be genetically enhanced and brainwashed to serve the Court. What's more, most of the Talons are people who died, who the Court takes in and reanimates into one of their immortal warriors.

It seems all too possible, in fact quite likely, that Bruce Wayne may return as the Talon. There is no direct evidence to imply this, but the fact that Batman's death has not been explained or attributed to any particular villain, and also the mere existence of the Court of Owls in the story, makes this outcome feel like a probable one. Will Bruce return to himself, or simply remain under the Court's control? Or, are we barking up the wrong tree altogether? No way to know, but it is fun to speculate. We'll know more when the game launches later this month.

That is our best answer for the question, is Batman dead in Gotham Knights? For more on the game, check out our rundown of the Gotham Knights voice actors.