Ranking the Gotham Cities in Live Action Film/TV
We rank ALL the Gotham Cities in live action, both film and TV, from The Batman (1943) to…The Batman (2022)! Plus, discover the origins of the name Gotham (for both New York City and Batman comics) and check out the more obscure Gotham Cities from Onstar and Turkish Airlines commercials!
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:04 The Origin of the Name Gotham City
The scan of the newspaper with the Gotham Jewelers advertisement comes from here: https://www.noblemania.com/2014/05/bill-finger-michael-uslan-and.html
9:57 The Batman (1943)
Production Designer: Unknown
Locations: Chatsworth, CA
13:08 Batman and Robin (1949)
Production Designer: Unknown
Locations: Chatsworth, CA
17:57 Batman (1966)
Locations: Los Angeles, CA, but with footage of New York City in the background of the Batmobile's driving
We ranked the Gotham City of BOTH the TV series and the 1966 film together in one.
21:21 Batman 1989
Production Designer: Anton Furst (with concept art by Nigel Phelps and set decoration by Peter Young)
Locations: Pinewood Studios, England, plus several buildings around London were used for both interior and exterior shots.
We covered more about the designs of this Gotham City in our concept art episode:
25:20 Batman Returns
Since Batman Returns was shot on a different set with a different production designer, we ranked this Gotham separately from the one from 1989.
Production Designer: Bo Welch
Locations: Burbank, CA
We covered the concept art for this Gotham here:
The observation of the Giants of Finance building influencing Batman Returns and Batman Forever comes from this tweet:
https://twitter.com/JulioStrigoi77/status/1521719235138912257
30:25 Batman Forever/Batman & Robin
Since both Schumacher films had Gotham City designed by Barbara Ling, we grouped them into one category for the ranking.
Production Designer: Barbara Ling
Locations:
Los Angeles, California
Most ‘Gotham City’-scapes were shot in New York for Batman Forever
Exchange Place, which is a side street in the Wall Street area, was selected for the Batmobile location shots for the narrowness and canyon-like qualities, according to the Batman Forever Magazine, which can be read here: https://www.1995batman.com/2020/06/magazine-article-batman-forever_30.html
Most of Gotham in Batman & Robin was in Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.
We covered the concept art for the Schumacher films here:
34:25 Break
Check out our link for Barkbox here.
39:36 Onstar Batman
Production Designer: Jim Millis
You can check out a few of the Onstar commercials featuring Gotham City here:
You can check out our coverage and reaction to the Onstar commercials in our $10 Patreon episode on Batman commercials here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/55434941
44:15 Birds of Prey (2001-2002)
Production Designer: Michael Helmy and Jaymes Hinkle
49:10 The Dark Knight Trilogy
Since all three films were production designed by Nathan Crowley, we grouped these in the same category.
Production Designer: Nathan Crowley with Kevin Kavanaugh collaborating on The Dark Knight Rises.
Locations:
Batman Begins:
Locations: Chicago, London, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Essex
According to the Art of Batman Begins, Tokyo was a design influence, along with the geography and iconography of New York. Nolan described that “Our Gotham City is New York on steroids.”
Crowley said “Our Gotham was about commerce, not industry. Modern cities are commercial and not industrial. Gotham is a place of decay but we didn’t want to see smokestacks. We wanted the chaos of a city that has naturally grown to limits confined by water. We took New York as a footprint and imagined it in a chaotic state.”
The most notable part of Gotham in the film is the Narrows, made famous by this, and influenced by Kowloon before it was demolished in 1994, as well as Roosevelt Island.
The Dark Knight
Locations: Chicago, Illinois, London, Bedfordshire
The Dark Knight Rises
Locations: Los Angeles California, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania New York, New Jersey
59:26 Gotham
Production Designer: Richard Berg, Daniel Novotny, and Doug Kraner
Locations: Most of the show is filmed either inside Steiner Studios and in several locations around New York but with CG and green screen added onto it to make it look different
1:02:11 SnyderVerse Gotham- Batman V Superman & Zack Snyder's Justice League (also feat. Turkish Airlines commercial, Suicide Squad, & Justice League 2017)
Batman V Superman
Production Designer: Patrick Tatopoulos
Locations: Chicago and Detroit
Check out the Turkish Airlines commercial here:
We mainly graded this based off of what was seen in the Zack Snyder films of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League, but the Gothams of the Turkish Airlines commercial, Suicide Squad, and the theatrical cut of Justice League all seem to fit the same Gotham.
Suicide Squad
Production Designer: Sean Haworth and Oliver Scholl
Location: Ontario, Canada
Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder's Justice League
Production Designer: Patrick Tatopoulos
Location: Chicago
1:08:37 ArrowVerse Gotham- Elseworlds Crossover & Batwoman
We grouped these in the same category since they were meant to be the same world. However, the Elseworlds version had a different team.
Elseworlds
Production Designer: Richard Hudolin
Locations: Chicago
If we were to rank the Elseworlds Gotham alone, it would likely get a D or an F.
The regular Batwoman show had a different team.
Production Designer: Ian D. Thomas and Lisa Soper.
Locations: Chicago and Vancouver
1:13:37 Joker
Production Designer: Mark Friedberg
Locations: New York City and Newark, New Jersey.
1:17:31 Crisis on Infinite Earths- Earths 89, 66, and 203
Production Designer: Tyler Harron (Earth 89 & 66), Jenny Wilson (Earth 203)
Locations: Vancouver
1:19:15 Birds of Prey (2020)
Production Designer: K.K. Barrett
Locations: Los Angeles, CA
1:23:08 Titans- Season 1 Finale & Season 3
Production Designer: Ingrid Jurek, Ian Brock, and John Dondertman
Locations: Ontario, Canada
We mainly ranked the Season 3 Gotham since we saw more of it, but as stated in the episode, we
1:28:42 The Batman (2022)
Production Designer: James Chinlund
Locations: England, Scotland, Chicago
Here's our final rankings:

1:35:48 Fan Comments
1:41:27 Closing: Fan Shout outs and Social Media Promotion
Big thanks to our research assistant Dan Yamat for providing the visuals for this YouTube experience, as well as the YouTube thumbnail, QC, and chapter time codes.
Dan also provided the research on the different production designers and filming locations for this episode.
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