Gameplay footage showing the Batman game that evolved into Shadow of Mordor has appeared online.
Once upon a time, developer Monolith was working on this Batman project with the hope it would tie in with Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film series. However, the game was eventually scrapped – reportedly in part due to the films’ director never officially giving the idea his blessing.
A 2019 episode of Did You Know Gaming? reported that this cancelled Batman project – which was codenamed Apollo – would have featured a variety of stealth and combat mechanics inspired by the Arkham games, open-world technology and the foundation of what would eventually become Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system.
Now, a collection of images and snippets of gameplay from Monolith’s cancelled Batman project have made their way online.
Shared to social media platform X, these show a glimpse at Batman gliding over the streets of Gotham, the game’s Batmobile, gadget loadouts, stealth sequences and more.
But, as we know, this game never made it to completion. As X user SpideyRanger notes in their thread: “Warner Brothers didn’t think that having two Batman gaming franchises was a great idea so the Batman game was retooled to a Lord of the Rings project and that’s how we got ‘Shadow of Mordor’.”
While Monolith didn’t get to release its Batman game all those years ago, it is currently working on another DC-related game: Wonder Woman.
This particular release was first announced back in 2021, when the developer said players will “become Diana of Themyscira in the fight to unite her Amazon family and the humans from the modern world” and “forge deep connections with both enemies and allies as they progress from a heroic fighter into a proven leader”.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Gotham Knights studio WB Games Montreal would be supporting development on Monolith’s upcoming Wonder Woman game.