THE BATMAN 2021 UPDATES: Andy ‘Alfred’ Serkis Interview + Screenwriter Animated Series Vibe & Debunking Joker Casting

It’s time to kick some Ice with a whole host of brand new Batman updates.

Though the production of the movie is currently frozen, there’s still been some cool little updates in regards to the movie from Andy Serkis and also screenwriter Mattson Tomlin.

Throughout this article we’ll be going through the brand new information and giving our thoughts on it. We’ll also be debunking the Tom Hiddleston Joker rumor so make sure you stick around until the end.

Andy Serkis Interview

Ok so Andy Serkis recently had an exclusive interview with Lad Bible in which he went over the tone of the film and talked about his portrayal of the character as well as others.

The interview started by asking the actor if fans were right to expect a darker and broodier Batman to which he replied:

“I would say that’s not far from the truth. It’s very much about the emotional connection between Alfred and Bruce. That’s really at the centre of it. And it is a really exquisite script that Matt has written.”

In a video in which we spoke to an account that had inside knowledge on the project, they stated that the movie would be aping a lot of Batman: Earth One and in that Bruce and Alfred are sort of thrust together.

Neither really like one another and Alfred never really intended to be a father but after the death of the Waynes he was pretty much forced into the role and he had to deal with the inner conflict over watching his “son” going out into the night dressed as a bat in a quest for revenge.

Earth One Alfred

Alfred in the book is ex-military and he is very similar to Serkis in build so I can see them perhaps using that work as a template to craft a new version of the character. The relationship that the two have is mended throughout the work and Alfred becomes more of a mentor rather than simply the Butler and ally that we’ve seen in the majority of depictions.

So it’s not going to be like anything that we’ve seen before and Serkis confirmed this in the interview when speaking on those who came before.

He said: “He [Caine] was fantastic. His Alfred was legendary, I couldn’t even begin to go there, really. You find it for yourself. It’s like playing these iconic roles in Shakespeare, you go back, you revisit them and you have to make it your own, and see what it is about the character that connects with you and your personal venn diagram.

I was literally halfway through shooting my part in it when we got shut down. So it will be interesting to see when that resurfaces how it has been affected by it [lockdown]. But it is, it’s going to be a beautiful film.”

Matt Reeves Comments

In April Matt Reeves told the Nerdist.

“I wanted to do not an origin tale, but a tale that would still acknowledge his origins, in that it formed who he is. Like this guy, he’s majorly struggling, and this is how he’s trying to rise above that struggle.”

This very much ties in with Serkis’ comments on how they are pretty much reimagining Batman and diving into the psychology of what really makes him tick. I think the dark and broodier comments highlight that we will very much be studying Wayne’s psyche and why he does what he does and why he’s always…just sitting about…in the darkness…brooding.

When looking at Batman there are really a lot of contradictory things that make him a fascinating character.

He locks up criminals but does it whilst breaking the law. He dresses up as a creature of the night similar to how his enemies dress up and showboat in clown costumes and leotards and overall when you think about it the guy clearly has a lot of issues.

This is all pretty much speculation on how it will be handled but as we know the film is going to be centred around a murder spree in Gotham that may or may not be committed by the Riddler. This isn’t a Batman that’s fighting Superman, he’s not in the Justice League stopping Steppenwolf or chasing after the Joker in a flashy sports car, he’s very much ground level, investigating crime scenes and seeing the torturous acts that have been committed by those he’s trying to bring to Justice.

You can imagine how going out into the night every night and finding dead bodies that have been completely ravaged would slowly send you insane and due to the grounded nature of the things that we’ve seen so far such as the batmobile and batsuit, I think that the movie will very much be centred around Bruce slowly going off the deep end.

Batman Ego

There’s an incredible book called Batman Ego that very much deals with this and it’s always been a side of the dark knight that intrigued me. Sure we’d love to imagine him like the Adam West version in which he’s shaking hands with the mayor and going to nightclubs but what would likely happen is that he would be completely disheveled and at points he may even question whether it’s worth saving the criminals that he’s trying to.

This is really where Alfred comes in and though it’s not often stated, he’s pretty much the one that keeps Bruce grounded. In the same way that Lois stops Clark from developing a God Complex and going all Brightburn, Alfred too much stop Bruce from becoming like the monsters that he’s trying to defeat.

I think that will very much be Alfred’s role here and in a way he is just as much the symbol of Batman as Bruce is. He’s the one who’s actually working away to care for the character, guide him and make sure that he doesn’t end up becoming a masked criminal like those he takes down.

I really hope that’s the direction that they go and judging by what Reeves has said and this Serkis interview it does seem like they’re leaning towards it.

It also seems like they will be pulling from a classic Batman property and that is the animated series.

The Animated Series?

Mattson Tomlin the film’s screenwriter has been answering fan questions on Twitter and he recently gave some hints at what he has looked at in order to develop the script.

When discussing what Batman IP’s he’d pulled from before writing it he said:

I can’t safely add much other than what Matt has already put out there, but I will say that it gave me a great excuse to rewatch the Animated Series and literally triple my already heavy comic book collection.

So it does seem like the movie might actually be pulling from what I think is one of the most iconic portrayals of the character so far.

Kevin Conroy and Mark Hammil pretty much nailed their depictions and the noir tone of the series has definitely influenced a lot of animated shows and films in the DCEU.

One of the first reports on the film we got was that there was going to be blimps in it and though this still remains unverified I would personally love to see them litter the Gotham skyline. They bring so much to the city and definitely make it feel more like Gotham.

The animated series is, of course, a classic and if it ends up like it in any way I’ll be a very happy fan.

Joker Tom Hiddleston Rumors

Finally, you may have seen some rumors going around that Tom Hiddleston has been cast as the Joker in the new Batman trilogy. Though I can’t say for definite whether these are true or not, using common sense it seems unlikely.

You may remember recently that Johnny Depp was rumored to be playing the clown prince of crime but these were quickly put on ice and denied so the story died down.

Journalists still need their clicks though and so they changed the actor and put Tom Hiddleston in place instead.

Now why I don’t think that this is true in the slightest is because the actor is currently playing Loki in The MCU and he’s even starring in an upcoming Disney Plus series centred solely on the character.

We don’t know the ins and outs of these contracts as they are never released to the public but I can imagine that there would be stipulations in there that say if an actor is leading a property then they are unable to sign on as any other comic book characters.

When this argument is brought up, Josh Brolin is the first go to due to his depiction of Thanos and Cable, however, he was never really heading up a franchise or a property himself so it’s unlikely that these restrictions were fully in place.

What I do think will happen is that this rumor will pick up steam similar to the Johnny Depp one and then it will be shot down once it gets big enough and so the people that cover this will just insert a new actor.

I think people just need to CHILL when these things pop up because it’s so easy to just make these things up.

You look at any site like we got this covered and they can easily run a story like ‘Chris Evans is in talks to return to the MCU, reportedly’ and it’s just exactly that.

He is reportedly in talks to return because they are reporting on it.

That’s like me saying Deffinition has the best ice puns…reportedly…sure he’s a cool guy…but we know that’s not true…reportedly.

So yeah, I doubt this is the case and once this COOLS DOWN you’ll see that it was nothing but an ice breaker…

Your Thoughts

Anyway that’s all of the Batman news for the week. Obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on these updates and what you wanna see in the future.