If The Batman wasn’t already close to the top of your list of most anticipated upcoming movies, that probably changed on Saturday with the release of the film’s first trailer. Director Matt Reeves unveiled the trailer during DC FanDome this past weekend and it immediately resonated with fans everywhere, causing quite a stir on social media. Part of the appeal of the new iteration of the Dark Knight, according to fans, is its grimy and realistic aesthetic, focusing on Batman as a detective rather than a superhero.
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Reeves’ vision for The Batman is a grounded one, keeping things as down to earth as possible while exploring the character of Bruce Wayne. That much was confirmed by Jeffrey Wright, who stars as Jim Gordon, during an interview with Sirius XM. Wright said that the trailer didn’t feature any CGI at all, and that everything seen in the footage was real.
“I think if you look at the trailer, if I am not mistaken, there is not one CGI image in the entire thing,” Wright said. “That’s all photograph.”
“One of those scenes in particular, we were filming on the day, on the last day that we shot,” the actor explained. “We shut down March 13 on a Friday, some of the stuff that we were filming that day is in that trailer. We were really stoked about what we were doing. First of all the script. When I read the script I said to myself, ‘Yeah this is on it’ because as you describe about Westworld, this show is very much about mystery, Batman the series. You go back to the original, it’s DC, it’s Detective Comics and the script is really beholden to that, beholden to this idea that Batman is the world’s greatest detective. I think as Gary Oldman once described, Gordon has something of a Watson to him. The script honors that and it also set a tone that was very clear, and a tone that has been captured in that trailer.
“I think one of the aspects of the script that I was really stoked about was the Batmobile. The way it was described, it was described as this kind of retro hyper hemi 5 muscle car that was just the craziest, coolest thing that you’d ever seen. When I read that I said ‘aha yes’ because what it was trying to achieve and what it does achieve, is to create an accessibility for our Gotham a world that is tangible and grounded and very familiar reality but at the same time it’s still fantastical, it’s still tweaked, it’s still arched but it’s accessible. There is a validation for the ideas…. It just has a grounded-ness to it that really struck me. It had a legitimacy and authenticity in that way and then of course the tone as written as well. It’s just really emotional and evocative and psychological.”
What did you think of the first trailer for The Batman? Do you like the dark and realistic take on Gotham City? Let us know in the comments!
The Batman is set to arrive in theaters on October 1, 2021.
