Jeffrey Wright to shine a great big flashlight as The Batman's Commissioner Gordon

There are a lot of adjectives you could use for the casting process of Matt Reeves’ new superhero movie, The Batman. “Intriguing.” “Uniformly excellent.” “Entirely Jonah-Hill free.” We can now add “containing Jeffrey Wright” to that descriptive barrage, as Reeves confirmed on Twitter tonight that the Westworld star has signed on to play the latest incarnation of put-upon Gotham cop Jim Gordon.

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Speculation about Wright taking the role began spreading last month (around the time that Hill was also reportedly in consideration for one of the film’s villain slots.) He joins a cast that includes Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, and Robert Pattinson as the man what bats himself.

And with apologies to J.K. Simmons (and also J.K. Simmons’ bizarrely jacked arms), it’s hard not to be excited to see Wright step into the role, as
Warner Bros. essentially breaks Batman back off from its aborted Justice League cinematic universe. Wright is, after all, a master of low-key reactions to high-concept weirdness, and we can’t wait to see him do the famous Batman bit where he’s talking to the Caped Crusader, but then he suddenly disappears, and then Gordon’s all “Doesn’t look like anything to me.”

The Batman is currently aiming for a June 2021 release date.

[via IGN]