The Dark Knight Trilogy’s Gary Oldman Reveals He Nearly Played a Different DC Role

There have been rumors over the years that The Dark Knight star Gary Oldman had been invited to play Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins, and during a new appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the star admitted that he had been approached for a villainous role at first…but he didn’t think that it was Ra’s. Rather, Oldman says he turned down an unidentified villainous role, probably Scarecrow, because he was tired of playing villains at that particular point in his career. That opened the door to the conversation for him to eventually play Commissioner Jim Gordon.

Oldman appeared in all three of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy installments, alongside Christian Bale as Batman and Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth.

“I’ve got a feeling it was Scarecrow,” Oldman told host Josh Horowitz. “That was about the time when I sort of was thinking, ‘I’ve really had enough of [playing villains].’ I think it was my manager, [who] suggested to Chris [Nolan], ‘What about Jim Gordon?’ And to his credit, Chris [said], ‘Hm, oh that’s interesting.’ We met, and that’s how it sort of came about, but I think it might be Scarecrow, I’m not sure.”

You can see the full podcast interview below.

Oldman currently stars in AppleTV+’s Slow Horses, a spy thriller that will soon debut its second season. Based on a series of novels by Mick Herron, Slow Horses has already been renewed for third and fourth seasons at the streamer, though it’s unclear if Oldman will still be involved at that point. He recently revealed that he plans to retire from acting soon.

“I’ve had an enviable career, but careers wane, and I do have other things that interest me outside of acting. When you’re young, you think you’re going to get round to doing all of them — read that book — then the years go by,” the actor said in a recent stop with The Sunday Times. “I’m 65 next year; 70 is around the corner. I don’t want to be active when I’m 80. I’d be very happy and honoured and privileged to go out as Jackson Lamb [his character in Slow Horses] — and then hang it up.”