Jeffrey Wright To Don The Moustache As THE BATMAN’s Commissioner Gordon

Batman's all well and good, but you know who's really great? Jim Gordon, who doesn't have a mask to hide behind and who does his job surrounded by corruption as well as more straight-up crime. To play Gordon, you need someone equally great - and according to a report from THR, The Batman director Matt Reeves may have found his great Gordon in the great Jeffrey Wright.

Wright is in negotiations for the role, says the report, as casting heats up for the rogues' and allies' gallery of this incarnation of Gotham City. It's unknown whether Gordon will be a commissioner or merely a detective in this version, but with Wright in the role, he'll surely be performed well. This role adds to Wright's collection of franchise roles, alongside his quietly clever characters in The Hunger Games, Westworld, and the James Bond series (including the upcoming No Time To Die). He'll inherit the role from Gary Oldman, in the Dark Knight trilogy, and J.K. Simmons, who managed just a single outing as the character in Justice League.

It remains to be seen what the fan reaction to this casting is - especially after the (unjustified) furore surrounding Robert Pattinson's casting as Batman himself. Wright is such a perfect match for the character's combination of idealism and world-weariness, it'll be a stretch for even the usual "this character isn't black" crowd to deny it. Given that we never got to see Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent return after the 1989 Batman (save for a cameo in The LEGO Batman Movie), it'll be nice to see a person of colour playing a major role in a Batman film again. As far as we're concerned, The Batman's casting so far is two for two.

The Batman is slated for a release on June 25, 2021.