Who are the Next Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox and Commissioner Gordon?
Ben Affleck’s casting as Batman has already generated
negative buzz, from the very first hour that the news hit the internet to be
exact. It even resulted in a petition on Change.org to have the actor replaced
by another. The reason behind this was his apparent lack of acting ability, as
stated by the petitioners that is. Frequent references were made to his performances
in Daredevil and Gigli. Living up to Christian Bale’s portrayal is a monstrous
task, one any actor should be intimidated by. However, certain other casting
decisions have almost gone unnoticed, at least in terms of speculation. Twitter
user @Reconcoding brought up a valid point regarding the replacement of
supporting characters, because a movie needs to have a synergetic ensemble cast
to complement the leads, otherwise the film would feel disjointed and
fragmented.
This got my thinking on Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred
Pennyworth and the superhero’s tech guru Lucius Fox. Who plans to take the
mantle from Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman? Christopher Nolan’s Batman
universe seemed to perfect all casting decisions, despite drawing scrutiny
early on, even for Heath Ledger’s casting as The Joker. The issue is that his
decisions will serve as a benchmark on all matters pertaining to the new
Batman. Any choice that Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer make will be compared
with the ones made previously in the Dark Knight Trilogy, creating a
disadvantage in terms of fan reaction and publicity from the get go. We must
wonder if this will hamper the cinema turnout in 2015. A new Alfred will always
be compared with Caine and Lucius Fox with Freeman. One factor working in favor
of these new actors would be their ages. Alfred and Fox are well beyond there
fifties, if not sixties. The only suitable choices therefore would be Hollywood
veterans who have earned the respect of countless generations of movie fans. This
will have the effect of reducing that strong initial skepticism faced by the
likes of other younger characters. That’s not to say that we would want Al
Pacino as Alfred. An actor who as essentially played gangsters will not fit
well into the role, but might I suggest Christopher Plummer?
While the supporting components can be a burden, they can
also be solved rather easily. Nolan himself substituted Katie Holmes with
Maggie Gyllenhaal for the part of Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne’s love interest.
Gyllenhaal was able to preserve the sanctity of the role, if not surpass the
efforts of Katie Holmes. If that decision worked out well, we could assume that
for the Man of Steel sequel, all will bode well. Or maybe not, but only time
will tell.
Upon further analysis, though, it might seem that these
decisions may not be finalized by the time the sequel arrives. As of now, we
are still unsure of the capacity in which Batman will be featured in the
Superman sequel. Is it a headlining role as we all think or a mild cameo?
Whatever the scenario, the direction taken by Snyder and co could leave out the
likes of Alfred and Lucius. After all, this is a Superman movie so the primary
focus should be on the Kryptonian, something people have forgotten ever since
Batman was put into the mix. But then again, is Batman the same without Alfred,
Lucius and Rachel? These are voids that DC and Warner Bros. need to fill up at
some point in the future, but will it be in the Superman sequel or much later
on as we get closer to that illusive Justice League movie?
