Police Commissioner James Gordon from the Batman action comics and films is about to get his own spin-off television series thanks to TV network FOX who won a bidding war to air the new show, reports Deadline.

Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman Played Commissioner Gordon In The Dark Night Rises.

The series, currently entitled Gotham, has bypassed the tentative pilot stage and has been given a straight-to-series order which shows just how keen the network are for the Warner Bros. produced Batman spin-off. The series will apparently focus on the detective James Gordon's career and "the villains that made Gotham famous" before Batman arrived on the scene.

Ben Affleck has recently been cast in the Zack Snyder directed upcoming face-off between the caped crusader and Superman, who will be placed yet again by Henry Cavill but Gotham will probably not feature Batman. Commissioner Gordon's spin-off will be written by Bruno Heller, who wrote Rome and The Mentalist, and is likely to be debuted between 2014 and 2015.

Gary Oldman Film Reception
Will Gary Return As Commissioner Gordon?

Although Gary Oldman's role as Gordon in the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, was praised, it will be unlikely that he will reprise his role in his character's TV series if the focus is to be upon a much earlier period of the police detective's life.

Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Gordon's character was created in 1939 and has served since as a key asset to Batman's crime-fighting motives as the franchise grew to be the most prized DC property.

Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck Is Set To Play Batman In The Upcoming Zack Snyder Movie.

The announcement of Gotham follows the ABC premiere of DC Comics' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D which premiered on Tuesday with an impressive 11.9 million viewers. The new spin-off will add to DC's other current projects to expand their TV series, including the currently airing Arrow, the rumoured The Flash spin-off and a potential Punisher show, though the latter is said to be dead in the water.