James Gunn has been coming under regular fire for casting a handful of his regular collaborators in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as tends to be the case with any one of his projects, but nobody seems to care that Christopher Nolan has once again turned to Cillian Murphy to shoulder the burden of leading Oppenheimer.
The Peaky Blinders star has appeared in Batman Begins, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Dunkirk for the acclaimed filmmaker, but this summer’s biographical dramatic thriller marks the first time he’s played a leading role in a Nolan production. And to think, their long-running partnership began when Murphy unsuccessfully screen-tested for the part of Bruce Wayne.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor admitted that he knew he wasn’t cut out to play the Caped Crusader from the very beginning, but it’s all worked out for him in the long run after being welcomed into Nolan’s inner circle.
“It was clear to me from the beginning that I wasn’t Batman material. It felt to me that it was correct and right that it should be Christian Bale for that part. But I remember the buzz of trying on the suit and being directed by you. Those tests were high production values.”
Nolan was even more forthright, coming right ahead and admitting “I think both of us knew that you weren’t going to wind up playing Batman,” even if he did make for an excellent foil as the slimy, scheming, and conniving Jonathan Crane.
Based entirely on the buzz, it’s reasonable to expect that Murphy will be among the front-runners for a Best Actor nomination at next year’s Academy Awards should Oppenheimer live up to the hype, something that may not have happened had he ended up headlining the Dark Knight Trilogy.