Warner Bros. and DC Comics are working on a variety of projects from the Batman universe, and among those involved is Jeffrey Wright, whose newest role is a big DC first – here’s why. Batman has become one of the most popular and beloved comic book superheroes, which has allowed him and the characters from his universe to branch out to other media. The Caped Crusader has expanded to TV (both live-action and animation), film, radio, books, video games, and more, but outside the comic book pages, Batman and Gotham City have found more popularity and success in TV and film.
In the realm of television, Batman has brought classics like the 1966 TV series Batman starring Adam West and Burt Ward and Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s. In film, the character has gone through a lot of ups and downs, with movies like Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, and most recently Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Batman is getting a new, fresh start in film with Matt Reeves’ The Batman, now with Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, and the studio is looking at other, less common media for superheroes to bring Batman to, as is the realm of podcasts, with the project Batman: The Audio Adventures.
Podcasts have gained force in recent years and listeners can now find a wide variety of topics and styles on different platforms, so Warner Bros. and DC are looking to explore this area with some superhero content. Among their recently announced projects is Batman: The Audio Adventures, a scripted audio original to be released on HBO Max, and while a release date hasn’t been announced yet, the main cast has. Starring in Batman: The Audio Adventures are Jeffrey Wright as Batman, Rosario Dawson as Catwoman, and John Leguizamo as The Riddler. Wright’s role marks a big DC first as he’s playing Batman in The Audio Adventures and Jim Gordon in the aforementioned The Batman movie.
The Batman changed the whole cast viewers knew from Snyder’s movies in order to start fresh and tell a different story from what DC’s Extended Universe had been doing, following a young Bruce Wayne in his first years as Gotham’s vigilante. Jeffrey Wright is taking over the role of Jim Gordon, previously played by J.K. Simmons in Justice League, and fans already got a first look at him in character in the teaser revealed during DC’s FanDome event. Wright’s experience as Jim Gordon will surely come in handy when playing Batman in The Audio Adventures as he will have different perspectives of Bruce Wayne and Batman as well as experience in two different styles of Batman stories. It’s unclear which comics or stories The Audio Adventures will be inspired in or if it will be a completely new story, but Wright will have enough experience already to play the Caped Crusader.
With DC and Warner Bros. expanding the Batman universe beyond film and TV, it wouldn’t be surprising if other actors follow Wright’s example and end up playing two different characters in different DC projects, adding more depth to the characters as they will have a better understanding of these and the Batman universe in general. It’s to be seen which other Batman projects Warner and DC Comics have planned, but so far, they look quite promising.
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August 07, 2021 at 12:17AM
