How Jeremy Irons' Alfred Will Be Different From Michael Caine's
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While we have seen many different actors take on the role of Batman over the years, we have actually only seen two big screen Alfred Pennyworths. The first was Michael Gough, who played Bruce Wayne's butler in both theTim Burton movies and the Joel Schumacher entries; and the second wasMichael Caine, who played the part throughoutChristopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. Because of this, Jeremy Irons actually has a surprising amount of freedom with his interpretation of the same part inBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - and judging from his recent comments, he's taking full advantage of that fact.
Irons has been up at the Toronto International Film Festival this past week celebrating the world premiere of the new thrillerHigh Rise, and it was while speaking withThe Toronto Sun that the actor explained how we can expect his version of Alfred Pennyworth to be different from those we've seen before. He painted the picture of the butler who is much more pro-active than other versions, and can take action when needed. He explained,
Zack Snyder, the director, wanted to create a completely different Alfred. So I felt I didn't have to carry any baggage from previous ones. It's sort of a reincarnation if you'd like. I had a feeling I was creating my own Alfred, more of a man who can actually do anything if he has to.
To Michael Caine's credit, his version of Alfred did manage to knock out a guard from the League of Shadows, and rescue Bruce Wayne from a fire. That being said, it seems we can now expect to see a version of the character who won't cower away from foes.
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"Foes" doesn't necessarily mean "the bad guys" either. As seen in the first full-lengthBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justicetrailer, he does a pretty good job pushing the Caped Crusader around:
If all goes according to plan, we should be seeing this brand new incarnation of Alfred Pennyworth for many years.Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is just the start ofBen Affleck's reign as the new big screen Dark Knight, and where Batman goes, usually Alfred follows. Provided he makes it out of the Zack Snyder film alive, we full expect him to be in the next solo Batman film (whenever that arrives) and possibly even in theJustice League features that are lined up.
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.
