Expect Justice League To Contain A “Little Introduction” To J.K. Simmons’ Jim Gordon

One thing that we all have to grow accustomed to in any rebooted superhero film franchise is the recasting of not only the title character, but the supporting ones as well. After having gotten used to Michael Caine and Gary Oldman as Alfred Pennyworth and Jim Gordon, respectively, in The Dark Knight Trilogy, moviegoers must now acclimate themselves to seeing Jeremy Irons as Bruce Wayne’s trusted butler and J.K. Simmons as Gotham City’s top cop, the latter of whom makes his DC Extended Universe debut in Justice League.

Having already put a definitive spin on J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Spider-Man flicks, Simmons is obviously no stranger to the genre, but it stands to reason that his Commissioner Gordon will be a bit more straight-faced in the performance department.

The question on the mind of many a fan since his casting has been just how big of a role Gordon will play in the film that joins DC’s premier heroes on the big screen for the first time. Well, according to some words he offered in a recent interview with ScreenCrush, it seems to be a bit small:

“My part in the first film coming out this fall is very, very small. It’s a little introduction of the character. But whenever the next one gets off the ground, whether it’s The Batman movie or the Justice League sequel, and I know those things are getting shuffled around right now … we thought we might be getting to work pretty soon on The Batman, but we’ll see what the future brings. Hopefully that’ll be another comic-book character that I get to take two or three or four cracks at.”

That sounds perfectly reasonable when you consider that despite Batman being the one to roundup the League, this technically isn’t his movie, so we don’t expect too much focus to be placed on Gotham itself. If I were to wager my best guess, he’s there to offer insight into the investigation surrounding the Mother Boxes or possibly in some kind of introductory clip that sees the Caped Crusader take down one of his lesser rogues, similar to what you’d see in the opening minutes of a James Bond movie.

Justice League opens in theaters on November 17.