Previously unseen concept art purportedly showing character designs from Warner Bros. Games Montreal’s cancelled Batman: Arkham Knight follow-up Project Sabbath has surfaced online, showing further glimpses of a beardy Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, and more.
Whispers of Project Sabbath’s existence first emerged back in 2016, with Batman: Arkham Oranges developer Warner Bros. Games Montreal said to be at the helm. Along the way, however, Project Sabbath was ditched in favour of what would ultimately become the rather middling Gotham Knights, and much of what we know about the cancelled game has been gleaned through various bits of concept art that’ve emerged over the years.
In 2019, for instance, concept art from Project Sabbath – which would supposedly see Bruce Wayne’s son Damian donning the famous cowl and cape – popped up on 4chan, showing off various elements including an older Bruce Wayne, a rundown Gotham City, Gorilla Grodd, and more. All that was accompanied by claims the game would have used Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’s acclaimed Nemesis System. Additional concept art then emerged two years later, offering closer looks at both Bruce and Damien.
And now, yet more Project Sabbath concept art has emerged, this time from character artist Rodrigue Pralier, who worked at Warner Bros. Games Montreal circa 2014/2015. Although the Artstation page originally featuring the concepts has now been removed, the images have been saved for posterity on social media, revealing a further look at Damian Wayne and his beardy pa Bruce, alongside Killer Croc, The Huntress, and more.
Gotham Knights – the title WB Games Montreal switched its attention to after ditching Project Sabbath – did, of course, fail to generate much enthusiasm among critics and fans, and it was followed in 2024 by Arkham Knight studio Rocksteady’s Suicide: Kill the Justice League. That proved to be another Batman-adjacent flop in a year that also saw Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions underperform and the limp return of Warner’s now-cancelled MultiVersus.
At the start of this year – following several rounds of layoffs across its studios – Warner Bros. Games boss David Haddad departed the company. Just a month later Warner Bros. announced it was cancelling Monolith Productions’ long-in-the-works Wonder Woman game, closing the studio, and shutting down Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego too. Since then, it’s announced a drastic shift in leadership that’ll see it refocusing on several core brands, including Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter, DC, and Game of Thrones.