One of the most important aspects of the Batman mythos is Alfred Pennyworth, loyal and trusted butler to Bruce Wayne. Over the decades, the character has been portrayed as a kindly father figure, wise old sage, hardened ex-solider and everything in between, but up until the Dark Knight Trilogy, the dynamic between the two never factored all that heavily into the live-action movies.
Michael Gough was one of the few constants to stick around through the original quartet of comic book blockbusters, but his contributions were largely limited to exposition or a wry one-liner here and there. Michael Caine made for an excellent foil to Christian Bale across Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, painting his Alfred as a man conflicted about his charge’s life choices, even though he knows there’s nothing he can do to change his mind.
We’re now hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us Ben Affleck would be returning to suit up in The Flash long before it was confirmed – that The Batman sequels will reportedly place a greater emphasis on the relationship between Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader and Andy Serkis’ Alfred.
There’s only a 22-year age gap between the two actors, much less than the 41 that separated Bale and Caine, while Gough was at least four decades older than Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney when they shared the screen. That already presents an entirely different way to explore the connection between the orphaned billionaire and his confidant, with The Batman franchise poised to paint the Bruce/Alfred alliance in an entirely new light that audiences have become accustomed to seeing.
