The Batman Director Matt Reeves Confirms Jeffrey Wright Will Play James Gordon

Jeffrey Wright will play Commissioner Jim Gordon in The Batman, filmmaker Matt Reeves has confirmed via Twitter. The actor, best known for his work on Westworld, has long been rumored for the role, but up until now, it has been the domain of internet and industry trade rumors. With a tweet (helpfully labeled “Tweet,” and featuring a bat emoji) from Reeves, it is now official. He will join Robert Pattinson, who will play Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Zoë Kravitz, who will play Selina Kyle/Catwoman. Several prominent Batman villains have been rumored to serve as antagonists in the movie, including The Penguin and The Riddler.

That role in recent years was portrayed by Gary Oldman across Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and most recently by J.K. Simmons in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, set in Warner Bros.’ shared DC Extended Universe, where Simmons appeared opposite then-Batman star Ben Affleck. You can see the tweet below.

“The Batman will explore a detective case — when people start dying in strange ways, Batman must go deep into the dark world of Gotham to find clues and solve the mystery/conspiracy connected to Gotham City’s history and criminals,” reads reported plot details that surfaced over the summer. “In the film, all of Batman’s Rogues Gallery are already out there and active, similar to the comics and animated shows/movies. The film will have multiple villains, as they are all suspects.”

The idea here seems to be that it gives a sense of the Gotham City that Reeves — who is supposedly working on a trilogy of Batman films if all goes well here — will be working with. The upside is that with so much of the audience having a familiarity with big chunks of Gotham, fans will not have to strain themselves to recognize most of the villains without a ton of backstory.

Reeves has characterized the film as a “very point of view noir-driven definitive Batman story in which he is investigating a particular case and that takes us out into the world of Gotham.”

“I went on a deep dive again revisiting all my favorite comics. Those all inform by osmosis,” Reeves explained last summer. “There’s no continuation of the Nolan films. It’s very much trying to find a way to do this as something that for me is going to be definitively Batman and new and cool.”

“Obviously we’re not doing an origin tale or anything like that,” Reeves added. “We’re doing a story that is definitively Batman though, and trying to tell a story that’s emotional and yet is really about him being the world’s greatest detective and all the things that for me, since I was a kid, made me love Batman.”

Warner Bros. has dated The Batman for June 25, 2021. Upcoming DC movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022