While Alfred has spent the better part of 80 years serving as Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler, mentor, and father figure, it’s time for the beloved character to get his own moment in the spotlight. This summer, a new Batman prequel series is coming to Epix, and it will tell the story of Alfred as a former soldier in 1960s London, long before Bruce was even born. The show is called Pennyworth, and the first teaser trailer has finally arrived. Check it out in the video above!
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The new series stars Jack Bannon as 20-something Alfred Pennyworth, who decides to begin his own private security company after serving as a British SAS soldier. This line of work introduces Alfred to a young billionaire named Thomas Wayne, played by Ben Aldridge. The rest of the cast includes Paloma Faith, Jason Flemyng, Ryan Fletcher, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett, Emma Paetz, and Polly Walker.
This first teaser trailer may only be 17 seconds in length, but it’s more than enough to show us that this won’t be like any other Batman-related series to this point. Instead, Pennyworth looks much more like an old-school spy thriller, which is exactly what the producers were going for.
During the TCA winter press tour, executive producers Danny Cannon and Bruno Heller, who also helped bring Gotham to life, spoke with ComicBook.com about the tone of the show, and how characters like James Bond and Harry Palmer were major influences.
“I went back and watched Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer movies, and the first couple of James Bond movies, because going back to that Cold War kind of story telling I liked going back into this period because all of our Berlin movies and Russian espionage movies, it was like the British version of westerns.” Cannon told us. “Like there was a wild west quality to the Cold War. Because after the war was done, we knew that there was a nuclear bomb, and we were capable of terrible things, but the spying and the style in which it was done, and the dignity with which it was done, and the charm with which it was done I thought all reminded me of what Bruno had been talking about. So going back to those movies, and watching what was good about Michael Caine back there was he didn’t hide his accent. And the fact that Harry Palmer was very unpopular, but he just got the job done. Because he called everything as it was. His feet were firmly placed in the ground, he’d look people in the eye and I really appreciated that, James Bond, same thing too.”
What do you think of Pennyworth‘s first teaser? Are you excited for the series? Let us know in the comments!
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