Casting calls for the superhero genre have continued to improve ever since Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy. With actors like Christian Bale, the late Heath Ledger, and Tom Hardy being some of the biggest standouts, but one of the supporting members of the team who doesn’t always get as much attention is Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon. He was often Batman’s counterpart, particularly in The Dark Knight. And as with any reboot, remake, or revamping of comic book series, casting usually must change. Taking on the role of the tough detective is Whiplash Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, set to be seen first in Zack Snyder‘s two-part Justice League epic.
Actors giving advice to one another isn’t that surprising, with recent ones being Christian Bale sharing few tips for Ben Affleck when the latter was preparing to play the Caped Crusader in Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Speaking to Yahoo! Movies, Oldman also had a few words of wisdom for Simmons about taking on Gordon in future films. Considering the character is one of the few morally sound people in the comic book series, it’s imperative that the actor portraying him understands that. Oldman even compared Gordon to the famous Dr. Watson in relationship to Sherlock Holmes.
The thing you’ve just got to get used to with Gordon is he’s a really sound detective, first of all. And he’s really incorruptible, which is a kind of wonderful quality to play and sort of, like, true blue. He’s like a Watson, oddly. He’s sort of like Watson to Sherlock, is Gordon to Batman.
Some of the bad reception that Dawn of Justice has received was due to Batman actually killing people on-screen, which is much more drastic than what previous takes on the character have done. And having Gordon in the Justice League (and possibly other) films could be a very crucial part to lightening up the tone of the dark stories that the DC Cinematic Universe is telling. Simmons is definitely up for the job though, having played a wide variety of roles over his long career, so there should be very few doubts about him taking the torch from Oldman. One of the only big questions that still remains is how the character will be incorporated into the packed storyline that Snyder’s upcoming films are tackling.
Justice League Part 1 opens on November 17, 2017, followed by Justice League Part 2 on June 14, 2019.
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