Batman Prequel 'Pennyworth' Could Feature Alfred Battling Jack the Ripper Descendants in Unhinged, R-Rated Series

With Gotham set to wrap up the young Bruce Wayne's journey toward becoming Batman, executive producer Danny Cannon is prepping for another DC Comics prequel series premiering this summer, the Alfred-focused show Pennyworth.

Speaking at the TCA event, Cannon revealed new details about Pennyworth, which will be set in London during the '60s and chronicle how the future butler meets Thomas Wayne. Actor Jack Bannon will play the lead role, which will show Alfred start a security company after his service ends in Britain's SAS.

"It's twentysomething years before Gotham, it's a very different world; this is the DC version of 1960s London," said Cannon. "13 degrees history is different: It's not the England we know. It looks and feels like, but if you look a little closer, (you ask) why is that like that? Why is that building there? What war is he talking about?"

Cannon called this version of London a "poetic reality" of the real thing, adding "just like I wanted people in Gotham to search for the darkest part of New York."

Because the 10-episode series will be on Epix, they don't have to deal with censorship and will be "unhinged, R-rated."

And while Pennyworth won't be going up against classic Batman villains as the young Bruce Wayne does in Gotham, Cannon teased there will be "archetypal villains and classic villains of British literature; they're all available to us."

He then used the example of Jack the Ripper, who is long dead during the time of this series, "but he has descendants," Cannon teased.

The producer addressed the early responses, with test audiences reacting positively to Pennyworth.

"We had a test audience and there were only so many who knew it was a DC-related series," Cannon said. "It was incredibly positive and that's because the characters are being drawn out. There's so much to draw from and so much to imagine."

We'll find out more about Pennyworth in the coming months, as the first of ten episodes is set to premiere on Epix this June.

[h/t Deadline]