Concept art for cancelled Batman game gives him a big beard

Concept art of Batman from a cancelled WB Montreal game.

(Image credit: Goran Bukvic)

PC Gamer probably spent too much time this morning arguing amongst ourselves about a silly yet quite interesting question: would Batman ever stop shaving? Like, even if he let himself go and got old and fat, surely Bruce Wayne would allow a few days of stubble growth max before fetching the Bat-razor. Maybe Alfred does it while he's asleep?

This philosophical poser arose thanks to the appearance of some concept art for a WB Games Montreal Batman title that never got off the ground. Art from this game leaked several years ago, with the concepts labelled Project Sabbath, along with the details that it was intended as a loose Arkham Knight sequel where you assume the role of Damian Wayne as the 'next' Batman, while daddy Bruce stays at Wayne Manor and barks down the Bat-radio to you.

Concept artist Goran Bukvic has now posted some images of the work he did for the game on his Artstation. "These concepts were done for a cancelled game a long time ago," he writes. "Had a lot of fun with these."

And here's why we've been arguing about whether Bruce Wayne would ever stop shaving.

OK, I guess beardy dad Batman is pretty cool. The art also shows his leg heavily strapped with some sort of exo-support, so presumably this version of Bruce had a career-ending injury which is why Damian's now Batman. And here's what Damian Wayne's Batman was going to look like.

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Concept art of Batman from a cancelled WB Moontreal game. — (Image credit: Goran Bukvic)

The Batman Beyond influence is unmistakeable, and it's a pretty cool suit: but what's going on with those cloven hooves? Finally, Damian's main mode of transportation was going to be a Bat-bike, which was designed by concept artist Elijah McNeal.

A bike concept for a now-cancelled Batman game. — (Image credit: Elijah McNeal)

This is, of course, merely concept art. A Batman game is such an enormous undertaking that the decision to cancel would have been made at an early stage: this may not even have been prototyped, and we'll never know if it would have been any good. But... beardy dad Batman, you were cool.

WB Games Montreal is currently at work on a different Batman game, Gotham Knights, which is due for release in 2022 and recently got a new trailer. The game's set in a Gotham where Batman is apparently dead, and all the sidekicks have to take centre-stage to bosh some baddies: here's everything we know about it so far.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."