It’s officially official: Jeffrey Wright is your new Commissioner Gordon. Word first broke in September that the Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor would fill the key role in writer/director Matt Reeves’ highly anticipated reboot The Batman, and Reeves confirmed Wright’s casting with a Tweet last night that simply said, “Gordon.”
Tweet! #Gordon ? pic.twitter.com/O4PBX7MmuH
— Matt Reeves (@mattreevesLA) October 30, 2019
But another note of interest here is the implication that Batgirl—in the universe of The Batman—will be a woman of color. The most iconic iteration of Batgirl in the comics is Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, so if Reeves goes that route in The Batman, or if Barbara Gordon is introduced in a sequel (you know there’s going to be a sequel), she will likely be cast with an actress of color.
This wouldn’t be the first time, however. Rosario Dawson played Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in The LEGO Batman Movie, as noted by that film’s producer Phil Lord.
https://t.co/WWw3BlG8gF pic.twitter.com/ThJ0hwoyci
— ?Foul Lard? (@philiplord) October 31, 2019
So let the Batgirl fancasting begin! Although there’s no guarantee we see Barbara in action in The Batman, which is reportedly stacked with characters as-is. Robert Pattinson plays the Caped Crusader, Zoe Kravitz is Catwoman, and Paul Dano was cast as The Riddler after talks with Jonah Hill went south, but The Penguin is also reportedly a character in the script alongside some other famous villains.
This story idea may be a bit of a holdover from Ben Affleck’s iteration of The Batman. The Oscar-winning Argo filmmaker was in line to star in and direct the film following his turns in Batman v Superman and Justice League, but after first stepping out of the director’s chair, Affleck subsequently departed the project altogether, allowing Reeves to start over from scratch with a new, younger Batman. But the story that Affleck was intending on tackling found Batman tousling with various baddies at Arkham Asylum.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of story Reeves intends on telling here, but he’s off to a great start with the casting thus far, and I can’t wait to see Wright’s version of Gordon in action. The actor will next be seen in the third season of Westworld, debuting on HBO next year.
