Gotham Knights has been revealed by WB Games and sets the unnamed four bat family members Bruce Wayne against the criminal underworld of Gotham City. Although this is the game's first official reveal, many leaks and reports from the game said it was the last game to take place in the Arkham Universe. While there may be elements to suggest a continuation of the story last seen in Arkham Knight, we'll caution you not to get into this thinking, it does. Here are the reasons Gotham Knights is not connected to the Batman: Arkham series.
Wayne Manor's explosion is very different
In the Gotham Knights trailer, Bruce Wayne sends an automated message to the bat family explaining his death. He states that he blew up Wayne Manor and news reports that his body was found in the rubble. While it holds up to the end of Arkham Knight, two particularly important factors are missing. First, there is no mention of Alfred, Bruce's loyal butler and closest member of the family. While Bruce could have let Alfred escape the explosion in time, it was actually Alfred who detonated the explosion in Arkham Knight. While there's a chance Alfred is still alive in Gotham Knights, Bruce appears to be dead for real, unless the game takes a comic book mentality and brings him back at some point, or 'he was captured by the Court of Owls.
The second glaring problem is that the news did not note Bruce Wayne as Batman. In Arkham Knight, it's revealed to the world who Batman really is, and for the news, not to mention that Bruce being the Dark Knight tells us they didn't know in this story yet. It's also worth mentioning that in Arkham Knight, the Wayne Manor explosion took place in front of a crowd of reporters, and the news anchor in the trailer makes it seem like it was an explosion. random, with no crowd in the middle. The two stories contain the Wayne Manor explosion, but there are too many glaring differences to say that they are similar events.
Finally, it's also worth mentioning that the code word for the destruction of Wayne Manor has a different code word. In Arkham Knight, Bruce calls it the Knightfall Protocol. In the Gotham Knight trailer, he's called Code Black.
A different version of Robin
All over Arkham City and Arkham Knight, Red Robin or Tim Drake is the current Robin who helps Batman in the fight against crime in Gotham City. In Gotham Knights, the Robin appears to be the son of Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne, and Talia Al Ghul. He was raised by Talia and the League of Assassins in the comics before becoming Robin. In the Arkham universe it was not mentioned and Talia Al Ghul was by Clayface in Arkham Knight.
While there is a chance that Damian Wayne still exists in the Arkham Universe, he has yet to be revealed to Bruce Wayne, so he is not part of the bat family. Additionally, there is no mention of Tim Drake in this trailer, who is in a relationship with Barbara Gordon. While we don't know what happened to Tim at the end of Arkham Knight, he hasn't been shown to be in the Wayne Manor Blast.
Barbara Gordon is Batgirl again
Speaking of Barbara Gordon, at the end of Arkham Knight she is still under the nickname Oracle, help from Batman's technological genius. Barbara was revealed to be Oracle in this story, but "after years of recovery and preparation, she is ready to take on her new role." It also indicates that the Wayne Manor explosion was different, as Barbara was still crippled at the end of Arkham Knight and hadn't taken the recovery years to get back to Batgirl.
At the end of Arkham Knight, Batman tells Oracle he is preparing the Knightfall Protocol while in Gotham Knights it appears to be his first hearing about the explosion.
Jim Gordon is dead
Our final point about Gotham Knights being in a new Batman universe outside of the Arkham series is that Jim Gordon is dead. In the trailer, Bruce mentions that the Bat Family cannot trust the Gotham City Police Department since Jim Gordon's death. This goes completely against the Arkham Knight ending where Batman rescues him from Scarecrow and walks away saying that Gordon was "there at the start, and now will be there at the end."
