Batman: Arkham Knight promises to turn Gotham into “city of fear,” as if it isn’t already

Warner Bros. released a new trailer for Batman: Arkham Knight today, billed as a “gameplay trailer” despite the fact that it consists mostly of cutscenes. In the footage, we see Scarecrow threatening to turn Gotham into a “city of fear,” and assorted Gothamites react with panic. But don’t read too much into that—hitting the streets to freak the hell out is what Gothamites do. Instead of lighting a city Christmas tree every year, they have a mass panic. When the Gotham Blades won the Generic Fictional Hockey League championship, there was a mass panic. When Sharon Needles won season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race? Mass. Panic.

So as for this whole “city of fear” deal: Listen, Scarecrow, the people of Gotham live in a city that’s home a staggering number of psychologically broken costumed freaks, and they’re protected by the only one of those freaks who doesn’t enjoy murdering people. Plotting to turn Gotham into a city of fear is like scheming to make Los Angeles a city of gridlock, or to make Chicago a city of mediocre pizza, or to make the comment section of this article a section of arguing over pizza. It’s going to happen with or without the vaunted Scarecrow’s intervention.

Batman: Arkham Knight is being developed by Rocksteady Studios, which also created Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Voice actor Kevin Conroy, who portrayed the title character in those two games, will reprise the role of Batman for Knight. It’s all part of an effort to pretend that the forgettable Warner Bros. Montreal-developed Batman: Arkham Origins never happened.