Gameplay for Canceled ‘Nolanverse’ Batman Game That Became Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Unearthed

Gameplay and images for the canceled ‘Nolanverse’ Batman game that was once in development at Monolith Productions have emerged online.

Before it released the much-loved Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor in 2014, Warner Bros.-owned studio Monolith worked on a game codenamed Project Apollo that was intended as a Nolanverse Batman game based on the version of the Caped Crusader played by Christian Bale. Liam Robertson of DidYouKnowGaming? has reported that director Christopher Nolan himself may have killed the game because he wanted to focus on The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final movie in his Batman movie trilogy. Project Apollo was said to feature the genesis of the Nemesis System Monolith later used with great effect in Shadow of Mordor.

Now, years later, X/Twitter user SpideyRanger has unearthed images and gameplay footage that gives us an idea of what might have been. They show Monolith’s intent to create an open-world Batman game set in Gotham, with stealth and combat mechanics that will look familiar to anyone who’s played Rocksteady’s Arkham games.

The open world of Gotham could be traversed by either gliding and utilizing the grappling hook (as established in the Arkham games) or by operating the Tumbler/Batmobile. pic.twitter.com/VZKXJBFsgP

— SpideyRanger 🇬🇭 (@Dageekydude) April 3, 2024

Early stealth sequence and combat mechanics (Latter would’ve been based on the Arkham system) pic.twitter.com/18uTxPzKm6

— SpideyRanger 🇬🇭 (@Dageekydude) April 3, 2024

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” pic.twitter.com/dkfJv2Jvua

— SpideyRanger 🇬🇭 (@Dageekydude) April 3, 2024

Warner Bros. studios are no strangers to canceled Batman video games. Gotham Knights maker WB Games Montréal had its Damian Wayne Batman game canceled before it was even announced. Work on that game followed the cancellation of a Suicide Squad game in 2016. Batman Arkham developer Rocksteady released a Suicide Squad game of its own, called Kill the Justice League, earlier this year.

As for Monolith, after scrapping the Nolanverse Batman game it went on to release the aforementioned Shadow of Mordor, then its follow up, 2017’s Middle-earth: Shadow of War. It’s now working on an untitled Wonder Woman game.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.