While the Gotham Knights show features a number of characters from the Batman comics, many beloved members of the Batman family are missing.
Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for the Gotham Knights premiere.Several prominent Batman Family characters are missing from the Gotham Knights show, including the Dark Knight himself. This is not the first time a television series based on the mythology of Batman has been made without the most popular characters from the comics. Gotham Knights is notable, however, for marking the first live-action appearances of several more recent and less famous members of the Batman family, including Harper and Cullen Row and the Joker’s Daughter, Duela.
The action of Gotham Knights centers around an unlikely group of characters who are forced to go on the run after they are framed for crimes they didn’t commit. It soon becomes apparent that corrupt forces seek to take control of Gotham City, and the outlaw teens must become the heroes the city needs in its darkest hour. This is necessary because the army of followers that Batman built in the comics does not exist in the reality of Gotham Knights. Here is a rundown of every major Batman character missing from the Gotham Knights show and why that is so.
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SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAYClose8Bruce Wayne/Batman
Bruce Wayne does appear briefly in the opening scenes of the Gotham Knights pilot episode. However, these scenes only serve to set up his violent death, shot with the same gun that killed his parents before being thrown through the window of his office in Wayne Tower. It is this sequence that sets the action of Gotham Knights‘ central mystery into motion. While Bruce Wayne may be dead and his secret life as Batman exposed to the world, his absence influences every aspect of Gotham Knights.
7Alfred Pennyworth
Bruce Wayne’s butler and foster father, Alfred Pennyworth, is absent from Gotham Knights. The pilot episode reveals that Wayne Manor is currently being tended by a woman named Cressida Clarke, who is also in charge of managing Bruce’s adopted son Turner Hayes in Bruce’s absence. Cressida makes reference to Alfred, telling Turner that her job is to protect him from himself, much like how Alfred cared for his father. Nothing is said of Alfred’ Pennyworths fate, but given his absence at Bruce Wayne’s funeral and the disorder that follows, it can be safely presumed that he passed away sometime before the start of Gotham Knights‘ story.
6The Joker
The Caliph of Clowns and Mogul of Mountebanks is confirmed to no longer be terrorizing Gotham City early on in the Gotham Knights pilot. District Attorney Harvey Dent is quick to theorize that Duela Doe, who is believed to be the Joker’s daughter, killed Bruce Wayne as revenge for her father’s death, implying that Batman either killed Joker or was believed to be responsible for his death. Duela confirmed this later in the episode, accusing Turner Hayes of framing her for the crime thinking she’d be the perfect patsy because Batman killed her father.
5Dick Grayson/Nightwing
Much like Dick Grayson in the comics, Turner Hayes in Gotham Knights was adopted by Bruce Wayne following the violent death of Turner’s parents. Turner’s opening monologue implies that he was the only child Bruce Wayne ever adopted in “a city filled with orphans” and that he always wondered why he was chosen. Beyond establishing that, in this reality, Bruce Wayne tried to raise a son and successfully kept him ignorant of his second life as Batman, this monologue confirms that Dick Grayson never became Robin or Nightwing in the reality of Gotham Knights.
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Beyond marking Turner Hayes as a unique character rather than being one of Bruce Wayne’s many adopted sons from the comics, there may be another reason that Nightwing is not featured in Gotham Knights. It’s likely the character rights to Dick Grayson and Nightwing were tied into Titans, making it impossible for Gotham Knights to use the character. The rights to Dick Grayson may also have been reserved for the upcoming sequel to The Batman.
4Jason Todd/Red Hood
The same reasons why Nightwing may not be able to appear in Gotham Knights apply to the second Robin, Jason Todd, who later becomes the violent vigilante Red Hood. Beyond Gotham Knights needing to make Turner Hayes Bruce Wayne’s sole heir, the character rights to Jason Todd and Red Hood were also likely tied up by the HBO Max Titans show, where Jason Todd was one of the main antagonists of Titans season 3. Additionally, while Gotham Knights is a fairly dark show, it would be all but impossible to accurately portray Red Hood on a broadcast network show.
3Tim Drake/Robin
The third Robin,Tim Drake, has multiple reasons for not appearing in Gotham Knights. The aforementioned redundancy problems and rights issues involving Nightwing and Red Hood apply to Tim, who is also part of the cast of HBO Max’s Titans. Additionally, the character of Turner Hayes seems to be loosely modeled on the Tim Drake Robin. While Turner is more of a jock than the brainy Tim, he has a close relationship with a girl named Stephanie Brown. Tim had a similar relationship with Stephanie Brown in the Batman comics, where she became the fourth Robin and third Batgirl, in addition to her original identity of The Spoiler.
2Commissioner Jim Gordon
The first cop Batman ever trusted and one of the few honest police officers in the GCPD, Commissioner James “Jim” Gordon is one of Gotham City’s quietest heroes. He is absent from Gotham Knights, presumably to allow District Attorney Harvey Dent to take the lead in the investigation into Bruce Wayne’s murder. Additionally, the character rights were likely tied up in the now-canceled Batgirl movie, which was still in production when Gotham Knights was first announced. It’s possible Jim Gordon retired peacefully or died before the first episode of Gotham Knights opens, but it seems more likely he never moved to Gotham from his native Chicago in this reality.
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1Barbara Gordon/Batgirl/Oracle
Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara is also conspicuously absent from Gotham Knights, with no indication that the first Batgirl or hacker hero Oracle exists on this Earth. Again, this is likely due to the character rights being tied up in the canceled Batgirl movie. Instead, Stephanie Brown takes over the hacking duties for the new team of teen heroes protecting Gotham City in the wake of Batman’s death, filling the duties usually handled by Barbara Gordon in the comics.
