Director Matt Reeves assembled an extremely talented cast when he made The Batman. Robert Pattinson’s take on Bruce Wayne was the ideal fit for the grungy version of Gotham City Reeves envisioned. Zoë Kravitz brilliantly conveyed the enigma of Catwoman. Paul Dano and Colin Farrell were each memorable as compelling villains. Another highlight of The Batman is Jeffrey Wright’s performance as Jim Gordon, as the character worked closely with Batman to solve the case of the Riddler murders. Though Wright was great in the role, some fans took issue with his casting, and now the Oscar-nominated actor has fired back.
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In an interview with Collider, Wright expressed frustration over the response some viewers had to his Gordon. “The Gordon thing, that’s another level. I guess increasingly now, I’m looking forward to getting back to it, but I really find it fascinating the ways in which there’s such a conversation, and I think even more of a conversation now, about Black characters in these roles,” he said. “It’s just so f—ing racist and stupid. It’s just so blind in a way that I find revealing to not recognize that the evolution of these films reflects the evolution of society, that somehow it’s defiling this franchise not to keep it grounded in the cultural reality of 1939 when the comic books were first published. It’s just the dumbest thing. It’s absent all logic.”
Why Jeffrey Wright’s Comments About The Batman Are Right
While there’s a case to be made that comic book movies aren’t as much of a box office draw as they were in the 2010s, they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Marvel Studios and DC Studios have full slates of projects planned, including The Batman Part II (which starts production in the spring). If these films are to keep resonating with audiences, it’s important for them to evolve with the times and reflect modern society. The reason why characters like Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man have endured in comics for decades is because they’re constantly being reinvented, with new creatives putting their own spin on things. It’s only logical for the movies to follow suit and keep pushing forward.
Following the footsteps of legendary performers like J.K. Simmons, Gary Oldman, and Pat Hingle, Wright became the first Black actor to play Jim Gordon in a Batman-related film or TV show. While the character is white in every other on-screen interpretation, nothing about Gordon connects him to a particular ethnicity. Wright embodied the spirit of the character in The Batman, establishing his Gordon as one of Gotham’s few good cops. In The Batman, he’s just a police lieutenant, setting up his promotion to commissioner in a sequel.
While Batman has been around since the 1930s, The Batman is set in the present day, so it was vital for it to resemble the world in which it was released. The film doesn’t even call attention to the fact Jim Gordon is being played by a Black man. The character just exists and simply does his job. If Reeves and Co. had deviated from the source material and done something drastic with Gordon that didn’t feel true to the nature of the character, then fan backlash would have been understandable. But in The Batman, Wright’s iteration of Gotham’s honest cop feels true to what viewers expect out of Gordon. That such a gifted actor brought him to life is a bonus.
An official cast list for The Batman Part II hasn’t been announced yet, but it sounds like Wright is gearing up for his return in the sequel. It’ll be exciting to see how Gordon evolves in the next movie. His dynamic with Batman was one of the best parts of the first film, and it’ll be great to see the two back together as they deal with the Penguin and whatever other threats emerge to take control of Gotham. Perhaps The Batman Part II will see Gordon assume his position as police commissioner and take on more responsibility to get crime off the streets.
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