Andy Serkis is fully aware of Matt Reeves’ dedication and level of detail when it comes to world-building, having headlined the director’s two installments in the rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy, and he admitted one of the main reasons he signed on to play Alfred in The Batman was because of his friend’s involvement.
Having additionally been a part of The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Serkis certainly knows a thing or two about how to operate in a sprawling sandbox with countless moving parts, and that’s set to apply to Reeves’ in-development BatVerse as well.
On top of The Batman, a pair of HBO Max spinoffs are in the works, while Reeves confirmed he’s already held sequel talks with Warner Bros. In a press event for this week’s blockbuster (via Collider), Serkis praised the filmmaker’s ambitious attempt to turn Gotham City into a character in its own right.
“Matt is very specific about what he sees. He sees it when he’s writing. It translates out of the emotion of what he’s writing. But Greg [Fraser] — the lighting is just phenomenal … There are so many great shots, but what I will say is, I’ve never seen Gotham look so complete, sort of its own thing and a character in a way.”
The Batman is poised to dominate both the box office and the cultural conversation this weekend, and the early reviews have indicated that it’s set to live up to the massive levels of hype and anticipation. This is just the beginning of Reeves’ plans for Gotham, though, and we can’t wait to see what comes next.
