Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Will Offer Clarity to Arkham Knight's Cryptic Ending

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will give some definitive answers on what happened to Batman after Batman: Arkham Knight. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is arguably the first major release of 2024 and will be Rocksteady's first new game in nearly 9 years. It has been a long road since the developer wrapped up its take on Batman, but it is continuing into the world of DC by expanding the so-called Arkham-verse with a game centered around the Suicide Squad. Four DC villains will be tasked with killing the Justice League. However, given Batman is in the game after faking his death in his last appearance, many are wondering what exactly has happened between games.

ComicBook.com got to sit down with Rocksteady Studios' Production Manager, Jack Hackett, and speak about the new game. Given Batman: Arkham Knight's true ending (only achieved after 100%ing the story) was a bit cryptic, we were hoping to get some answers. For those that need a reminder, after Bruce Wayne fakes his death by blowing up Wayne Manor, a group of criminals can be seen mugging some civilians in an alley. They believe Batman is gone and can do as they please, but they look up and see a demented version of Batman, something that doesn't seem human, coming at them. The implication seems to be that Bruce Wayne is now using Scarecrow's fear toxin in some capacity, but it's pretty ambiguous as to how involved he actively is with keeping Gotham safe. 

We asked Hackett if we can expect some more clarity as to what was going on in that ending and what happened to Batman after the events of Arkham Knight within Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It seems that yes, that will very much be the case.

"Yes, you will. There's a bunch of ways we convey what happened in the five years between Arkham Knight and Kill the Justice League. There's one big set piece quite early on in the story, which, I don't want to give it away, but in a really fun way, kind of takes you through the core beats of what happened, how the Justice League got together, what happened with Bruce, with Batman, and other details there. Particularly for big lore and DC and Arkham-verse fans. There's some really fun ways you can find out a lot of the details and get some of the kind of background story. And then, yeah, through the Metropolis, through the Hall of Justice, through lots of different spaces and avenues in the game, there's lots of details on what the characters from all three of the Arkham games have been up to since Arkham Knight. And, I think there are probably some characters that are going to pop up that Arkham-verse fans will certainly recognize but probably don't think are going to appear in this game, [such as Aaron Cash]."

During our hands-on time with the game, we did spot a newspaper that mentioned something along the lines of a demon bat terrorizing Gotham, so there will be some direct references to be found in the environment as well as within the story itself, it seems.