Jeffrey Wright Talks The Batman and the Batmobile

In a recent interview with Heroic Hollywood (via ComicBookMovie) actor Jeffrey Wright, who plays Commissioner Gordon in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, discussed the highly anticipated film and confirmed that the tone of the film was reflected in the recent DC FanDome trailer.

To start, Wright discussed his take on Commissioner Gordon and explained that his iteration will follow in the footsteps of Gary Oldman, who, of course, played the role in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

“First of all the script, when I read the script I said to myself ‘yeah, this is on it’, Wright said before adding, “Because as you described about Westworld, you know, this show is very much about mystery, Batman, the series. You go back to the original, it’s DC, it’s Detective Comics and the script is really beholden to that, beholden to this idea of Batman is the world’s greatest detective. I think, as Gary Oldman once described, you know Gordon is something of a Watson to him. The script honors that and also sets a tone that’s very clear and a tone that’s been captured in that trailer.”

Wright then spoke about the Batmobile, which he described as a crazy, hyper-modified muscle car. “And I think one of the aspects of the script that I was really stoked about was the Batmobile, the way it was described — It was described as this kind of retro, hyper-modified muscle car, that’s just the craziest coolest thing you’d ever seen. And when I read that I said ‘aha, yes.’ Because what it’s trying to achieve and what it does achieve is to create an accessibility for our Gotham, a world that is tangible and grounded in a very familiar reality. But at the same time it’s still fantastical, it’s still tweaked.”

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Starring alongside Robert Pattinson’s Batman/Bruce Wayne is Zoë Kravitz (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Mad Max: Fury Road) as Selina Kyle; Paul Dano (Love & Mercy, 12 Years a Slave) as Edward Nashton; Jeffrey Wright (the Hunger Games films) as the GCPD’s James Gordon; John Turturro (the Transformers films) as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard (The Magnificent Seven, Black Mass) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson; Jayme Lawson (Farewell Amor) as mayoral candidate Bella Reál; with Andy Serkis (the Planet of the Apes films, Black Panther) as Alfred; and Colin Farrell (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Dumbo) as Oswald Cobblepot. Twins Max and Charlie Carver have also joined the movie in “sizable roles.”

During DC FanDome, Reeves confirmed the movie will focus on Bruce Wayne’s second year as Batman, and, per Walter Hamada, that the film is set in a different universe separate from the Justice League DCEU characters. Reeves also revealed that the movie is a detective story that follows a series of murders that open up the history of corruption in Gotham and how Bruce’s family is linked.

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Reeves and Dylan Clark (the Planet of the Apes films) are producing the film, with Simon Emanuel, Michael E. Uslan, Walter Hamada, and Chantal Nong Vo serving as executive producers.

The Batman opens in theaters on October 1, 2021.