Monolith’s Cancelled Batman Video Game Early Footage Revealed

Monolith Productions, a gaming studio that is best known for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, once developed a project based on Batman, and although the game was cancelled, a new leak gives some interesting footage.

Some videos from the game’s early concept were initially uploaded to BlueSky social media by user MrTalida. He also shares some details in addition to the video game’s footage. As you can see in the videos below, in Monolith’s Batman video game, music changes when the player is doing either stealth mode, entering combat, or playing quests. Then we might see how the Dark Knight’s cape moves while the hero is walking. Officer Gordon also was set to appear in the game, while we see him alongside Gotham police officers. There is another look at the game’s combat system, how Batman uses Batarangs, smoke bombs, and knocks enemies and uses detective mode—and MrTalida clarifies, “This is very, very early stuff.” At last, we see the Batmobile in action, and it's also probably in a very early stage of development.

"A variety of early development videos demonstrate dynamic audio systems that would react to the player's situation and smoothly transition music. It's the sort of thing that makes a world of difference but we rarely consciously notice! 4/9"

"Project Apollo character art videos featuring cloth physics sims, character turnarounds of Gordon and Gotham police, and a surprising facial animation test. 7/9"

"Here's a series of videos showing various game mechanics at play, like completing a quest, knocking an enemy out, throwing smoke bombs, basic combat, and AI navigation.

Again, this is very, very early stuff. 8/9"

"Lastly, here's a video showing the progress Monolith made on the tumbler sections.

IIRC, the 2024 leak didn't show any tumbler footage, so this may be our first look. You can see the feature progress from Oct 2009 to Jan 2010."

By the way, the new Batman video game releases this year—it's LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. The game is set to release on May 29 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

What do you think of the cancelled Batman game developed by Monolith? Share your thoughts in the comments below!