The Batman looks to reboot DC’s most successful hero at the box office, however, just like the many Batman movies that came before it, Matt Reeves’ Gotham promises to be unique in its own way and that’s something that hasn’t gone unnoticed for its Commissioner Gordon, played by Jeffrey Wright.
Last year, Wright’s work in the film was interrupted due to delays stemming from the pandemic and at least one confirmed case on set, although that didn’t stop The Batman from returning to its filming locations spread out across the United Kingdom and Chicago half a year later. While J.K. Simmons was the latest actor to play Jim Gordon in Justice League and the planned Batgirl project, Wright was picked as part of The Batman’s universe that’s completely separated from the rest of the films that make up the DCEU.
During an interview with IndieWire, Wright talked about some of the things that made him want to jump on board for The Batman, including what he believes to be “themes around corruption and class tensions and all of the things that he [Reeves] wanted to bring from the outside into this world.” He still warned his interviewer that The Batman’s main plot points are being tightly kept under wraps by saying “we had like five layers of encryption to figure out what we were filming the next day”.
Wright specifically spoke of the kind of Gotham City that Reeves wanted to build, hyping up the result as “unlike Gothams we’d seen before. It was a Gotham we could touch…”, an angle that not only speaks about the city but everything from the Batmobile to its streets, saying that “If you squint your eyes in some backstreet of New York, you could see it appear.”
As the film’s March 4, 2022 edges closer and a new DC FanDome trailer awaits The Batman, fans are beginning to see more of this realistic approach described by Wright, whether it’s in the Riddler’s Zodiac killer inspiration or even with the few leaked images from the movie’s set that surface from time to time. Beating out the Dark Knight Trilogy is hard, it’s something that even Marvel Studios with its wildly successful MCU has arguably failed to accomplish, so carving out a Gotham that resonates with Batman fans is essential to make a film that -at the very least- satisfies fans expectations.
Funnily enough, Wright’s most recent work is currently available for Disney Plus subscribers to enjoy since the actor lends his voice to What If…?’s mysterious Watcher, a role that seems almost tailor-made for Wright given his growing resume as a narrator. It will be a while before Wright teams up with Robert Pattinson's Batman, but he sure makes it sound promising.
The Batman is currently scheduled for release on March 4, 2022.
Source: IndieWire