Batman operates as the protector of Gotham City, but which versions of his home base looked the best on-screen, and which ones missed the mark?
Gotham City; the most dangerous place on Earth, Well, in comics books at least.
The gargantuan metropolis first made its comic book debut in 1940, arriving just one year after a certain Dark Knight made his presence felt on the world. It’s the home of Batman and the very reason he exists, for the crime within in it and the tragedy it brought is the very reason that Bruce Wayne took it upon himself to become a creature of the night.
Gotham is known for its villains, but it’s also known for its architecture, its eerie atmosphere, and the larger-than-life world that exists within it. Gotham is a vibe, and a very bad one at that – but that’s the reason it needs a winged protector who will stop at nothing to bring justice to it. For as strange a creature as Batman is, The Dark Knight is the only beacon of light in a city full of darkness. As we’ve heard various characters say in multiple adaptations: Gotham needs The Batman.
Speaking of adaptations, Gotham City is as regular a presence on the screen as the Caped Crusader himself, popping up in countless movies and TV shows over the years. But which iterations of it stand out as the best?
13. 1940s movie serials
The Dark Knight’s first ever foray onto any screen came in the form of a 15-chapter 1943 movie serial. Simply titled Batman, it featured Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft as the Dynamic Duo, and it was a success as a sequel serial came after that. Released in 1949, Batman and Robin starred Robert Lowery and John Duncan in the title roles.
The movie serials are important chapters in the Caped Crusaders’ legacy as they proved that their comic book adventures could work on the screen. They also paved the way for the game-changing 1966 TV series. However, they haven’t aged as well as the classic show, and a large part of that is down to the limitations of the time.
Gotham City never particularly felt like much of a presence in them either. Yes, it was there as the setting in which the adventures took place, but it wasn’t a factor – or, for lack of a better term, a character – in the way that it would become in the more modern stories. It was a necessary part of the story that had nothing to offer beyond that, with the occasional reference to it being made here or there. It also didn’t have any particular look beyond just looking like any other city.
It was there but it was, well, just there.
12. Birds of Prey
Birds of Prey was the first live-action Batman series since the Adam West and Burt Ward show concluded in 1968. That’s wild to think about, especially since it wasn’t really a Batman show, but the 2003 drama has gone down in history as more of a “what could have been” than anything else.
Missing out on the superhero TV renaissance that would come a decade later, Birds of Prey was set in New Gotham; a world where Batman and Catwoman had disappeared, leading to the titular trio of heroes stepping up to protect it. It’s very much in the vein of the Burton/Schumacher franchise (some of the costumes even appear in the intro scene), but it didn’t have the budget of those to bring a vibrant or memorable Gotham City to life.
Some of the establishing shots look great, but the show rarely spent any time outdoors to give us a feel of what the city was actually like.
11. Gotham Knights
The most recent of the Gotham Cities to make its presence felt on this list, Gotham Knights was a short-lived series that aired on The CW in 2023. It was the last new DC TV show produced by the network and focused on Batman’s adoptive son Turner Hayes, after he was accused of The Dark Knight’s murder. He and the children of Batman’s enemies must then team up to clear their names.
The show is a lot better than it’s given credit for, significantly improving past its pilot. It also does a pretty solid job of creating a Gotham City that actually feels like Gotham City. While the show was filmed in Toronto, Canada, Gotham Knights uses its fair share of trickery to create some unique and outlandish visuals that would only be at home in Gotham. It’s fleeting, and far-and-few-between, but given the limited budget it had, it pulled it off.
Gotham was dated, old-fashioned, and larger-than-life. You can’t really ask for more than that.
10. The DCEU Gotham
Here we have a Gotham that also reeks of “what could have been”. It had the atmosphere, the moodiness, and the aesthetic for an all-time great adaptation but it never actually got the chance to showcase any of it.
We find ourselves in the Gotham City of the DC Extended Universe for the first time in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and occasionally return there in Suicide Squad and both versions of Justice League, and yet never do we get a chance to spend any real time there. The moments we see of it are alluring and unnerving at the same time, creating a sense of what Gotham is all about, but it never really furthered that as there weren’t any standalone Batman movies in the DCEU to explore it.
The sight of that eerie Bat-Signal illuminating the cloudy night sky and the shots of Batman himself standing atop many rooftops overlooking the cityscape alluded to a Gotham City that could have crafted some haunting and compelling stories, but it wasn’t to be.
The Gotham City featured in the DCEU movies was dripping with potential, but it was never given the chance to live up to that.
9. Batman (1966 – 1968)
The game-changing Batman TV series entertained audiences on ABC for three years between 1966 and 1968. It has gone down in history as an important part of the Dynamic Duo’s legacy, making them household names to mainstream audiences. It was also incredibly comic-accurate for the time, featuring all of the foes avid readers had come to know and love.
What the 1966 version of Gotham City lacks in visuals it makes up for in content, because even though we don’t see many eerie cityscapes or much outdoor scenes, you still can’t help but feel like Gotham is alive because of the way it is portrayed. It’s much more colorful and comical than any of the other iterations, but that’s what sets Batman and its movie counterpart apart from the rest of the pack. Yes, there were budgetary limitations but this classic adaptation made the most of it and found a way to make it work for it. The result was delightful.
8. Titans
Titans toyed with the idea of Gotham City for a long time, taking us there for a dream sequence in its season 1 finale. However, it finally took us there for real in the third season, as the heroes had to unite to take down the Scarecrow. And it worked for Titans really well, perhaps even handing the series it’s best season as a result.
The eerie visuals were perfectly at home in the gritty show. Titans was no stranger to dull alleyways and dark cinematography, so Gotham needed to look different. It pulled it off well, with the high quality production giving it a cinematic feel and a larger-than-life presentation that you don’t see on TV shows all that often.
It isn’t as Gothic as it appears in the comics, but it isn’t just any old city either. Titans found the perfect blend, and with The Scarecrow’s reign of terror, Nightwing’s familiarity with the city, and the emergence of Red Hood, it was the perfect setting for season 3.
7. Batwoman
Batwoman officially introduced Gotham City to the Arrowverse and what an introduction it was. We got our first glimpse of the city in the Elseworlds crossover, and it certainly looked a lot larger than life than the vast majority of the Arrowverse shows. With more Gothic architecture than the likes of Central City or Star City, the expansive overhead shots brought Gotham to life instantly.
However, when Batwoman was picked up, it looked very different. This was down to the fact that all of the establishing shots were filmed in Chicago to give the show’s iteration of Gotham a more grounded look identical to the one seen in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight movie trilogy. While that certainly gave it a cinematic look, it robbed it of that eye-widening Gothic look of the previous iteration. And that’s a shame considering how Batwoman would have been the perfect show for that Gotham.
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Nevertheless, the one we got full time had its moments. As the show was primarily filmed in Vancouver, the majority of external shots involving the cast were usually in alleyways or side streets, but it certainly added to the grounded nature that Batwoman was going for.
This version of the city had real potential but it was only beginning to scratch the surface of that when the show was unjustly cancelled after its third season.
6. The Dark Knight Trilogy
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy is widely regarded as one of the – if not the – greatest adaptations of a comic book superhero of all time. It’s hard to argue with that sentiment because each one of the three movies are brilliant in their own right, each offering up their own important chapter of Nolan’s overarching story.
Gotham City is a huge part of that story, especially in the first movie (Batman Begins), as Bruce is sickened by the levels of crime that take place in it. From Carmine Falcone’s grip on the city to the overflowing criminal activity in The Narrows, there was crime and corruption everywhere. That, and the unique inclusion of the monorail, helped set up an amazing premise for an amazing movie.
Nolan is renowned for his realism, so the next two movies of his saga (The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises) were more grounded in tone. Gotham felt like less of a character, because it just looked like any normal city (it was filmed in Chicago) but that added a great deal to the story. It was beneficial to the films’ more grounded nature, highlighting that even though Gotham looked beautiful on the outside, it was anything but on the inside. The more time we spent in it, the more audiences discovered that. And that is a pretty darn effective strategy.
5. Gotham
If there is one thing fans can agree on about Gotham City, it’s that it harbors the most unearthly and nefarious fiends the comic book world ever did see, and that’s something that Fox’s Gotham understood beautifully. As its title suggests, the Batman prequel was all about the city that morphed a young Bruce Wayne into the crimefighter of tomorrow, and that meant that we got to spend a lot of time in that city itself.
Even though it debuted in the heart of dark and realistic superhero adaptations, Gotham took its cues from the more gimmicky, outlandish and even campier Batman adaptations, so there were nods and references to the Burton movies in its architecture and the Schumacher movies in its lighting and structures. It was all very eerie, and noir, and it worked as the perfect setting for the absolute bonkers antics that went on in the show.
Gotham was alive with possibilities, and that reflected in the city. It was unnerving and enticing all at the same time, and that is the appeal of Gotham City in a nutshell. The fact that the show managed to feel this ambitious from the get-go is impressive, but the fact that it managed to sustain this level of grandeur in its overall presentation throughout its five-season run, that is phenomenal.
4. The Schumacher Gotham City
Appeared in: Batman Forever, Batman and Robin
We like our Gotham Cities to be vivid, and you can’t get much more vivid than the one seen in the Joel Schumacher Batman movies. A change in direction for the franchise after its darker predecessors, this portrayal is characterized by its bright neon lights, its ridiculously large Greek-god-like sculptures, and high bridges.
There was a vacuous extravagance to it all that just matched Batman Forever and Batman and Robin so well. It was so over-the-top for no reason, and yet it was easy to buy into because anything could happen in Gotham City. The movies may not have been well-received, but their iteration of the city feels like one of the things they got so right – and it’s time we started admitting that to ourselves more often.
The Gotham in the Schumacher movies were loud and in-your-face but at least it had something to say. For better or for worse, it had its own identity and made a solid case for why it’s the most innovative of the Gotham Cities seen on film thus far. And you can’t really fault it for that.
It’s an acquired taste, for sure, but if you acquire it, you have taste.
3. The Batman
Matt Reeves’ The Batman is a visual masterpiece. It’s one of the most immersive viewing experiences to make its presence felt on the big screen from the last decade, reeling you in with its haunting beauty and refusing to allow you to look away when it shows you its inner darkness. That’s Gotham City in a nutshell.
The 2022 movie was filmed in Glasgow, Scotland, which doubled for the Caped Crusader’s hometown, and that gave it a classic Gothic feel. The architecture was made for Gotham City, and that made it pop on-screen at all times. It was old-fashioned, like a British monster movie of the ’50s or the ’60s, and it was a look that The Batman wore extremely well.
The way that Reeves shot the movie made Gotham alive in a way it had never felt before. From the invasive POV angles of the city we saw through Bruce Wayne’s helmet to the way that the shadows of the buildings caressed everything in sight, this was perhaps the most haunting iteration of Gotham to appear in live-action, and that made it a vivid experience to be part of.
It was an encapsulating watch, because it truly felt like The Riddler could be anywhere – and when that “anywhere” involves a crime-ridden underbelly and locations like The Iceberg Lounge, the threat level was always high in Gotham City. What a place.
2. Batman
When Tim Burton was hired to direct Batman, audiences knew they were going to get an immersive, memorable movie. Needless to say, that immersive experience is exactly what we got when the film was released in theaters in 1989.
Burton’s movie created a world where a dark avenger like Batman had to realistically exist. Gotham City was largely responsible for that, as the crime within it formed the man who would be bat. That comes across pretty early on in the movie, as Gotham is a cesspool of corrupt cops, criminals, and unsafe streets.
Anton Furst’s wonderful art deco designs instantly set it apart from any old city, and it also imbued it with a sense of nostalgia. The movie’s story did the same, as it was easy to believe that there was crime waiting to pounce behind every smoky alleyway or city celebration. The fact that the crime bosses ran the city in secret also gave it a crime noir feel that we haven’t really gotten from any of the other Batman movies (until perhaps 2022’s The Batman).
The ongoing political battles and the war with crime that the likes of Commissioner Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent were fighting made Gotham City alive from the get-go, and the eerie look of the beautiful architecture did all the rest. This was a Gotham that needed Batman, and we’re so happy we got to witness the beginning of his reign as its protector. And we couldn’t help but marvel as he took his rightful place among the gargoyle statues, looking down over his eerily beautiful kingdom.
1. Batman Returns
Gotham City is meant to strike fear into the hearts of those who live in it. It’s supposed to make audiences uncomfortable and yet intrigued at the same time. It’s designed to be vivid in every imaginable way. No version of Gotham City pulls that off quite as well as the one seen in Batman Returns.
The 1992 film is a direct sequel to 1989’s Batman, so we can’t exactly explain why Gotham City looks completely different, but it definitely has something to do with director Tim Burton having more creative control this time around. Needless to say, the film benefited from it, because Gotham was instantly more alive than it was in its predecessor, serving as the perfectly macabre setting for the perfectly macabre story that was about to unfold.
It had all the tall skyscrapers you would expect from the city, but it covered it in a layer of gruesomeness that really can’t be put into words. Whether it was the more Gothic architecture, the eerie Shreck Cat-faces littered throughout the buildings or the constant spotlights which cast shadows everywhere, this Gotham was unsettling. Even covered in snowfall, it looked eerie. Beautiful. But eerie.
Gotham City belongs in a twisted nightmare, and Burton’s second outing personified that. Some adaptations have alluded to the evil within, but Batman Returns showcased how that evil had begun to manifest through its own horrifying architecture. This is what Gotham really looks like when the curtain is pulled back, and it’s always a sight to behold.