Jeffrey Wright IS Commissioner Gordon

[Poppy]

Wright also looks like he's very tired/done, like he's seen too much. Which is really fitting for a regular cop who's dealing with clowns and people dressed as bats.

 

[Schlosser85]

I’m not asking for things to look 100% as they are in comics, that’s unreasonable, what I’m asking for is something resembling the character.

Put glasses and a mustache on Jeffrey Wright, and he does look Gordon-esque.

 

[Schlosser85]

Wright also looks like he's very tired/done, like he's seen too much. Which is really fitting for a regular cop who's dealing with clowns and people dressed as bats.

Yup. That world-weary hangdog look, which both Gary Oldman and J.K. Simmons had as well.

 

[David H.]

Wright also looks like he's very tired/done, like he's seen too much.

I should change my user avatar to picture of Jeffrey.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

I would argue he absolutely does look like Gordon, especially in Westworld when he's rocking the glasses. It's entirely possible for a black actor to match the appearance of a previously white character in all the ways that matter, take Noma Dumezweni in Cursed Child - she looks a thousand times more like how Hermione is described in the books than Emma Watson did even though she's a black woman.

It's also amusing to see Gordon's ginger hair as a key aesthetic character trait (not a whole lot of harping on that, but I've seen it pop up) when he's been grey 95% of the time in the comics and distinctly not ginger 100% of the time on film.

 

[BatsAndNights]

There's certain characters where changing their race affects things about the character and others where it doesn't.

I don't want a black or Indian James Bond, because there's things about Bond's character that are inherent to his backstory as a white old money Englishman of a certain generational/cultural mentality that would be different if he was black or an immigrant. I wouldn't want an American Bond either, for that matter, because it's just not Bond.

Same as it'd fundamentally change their characters to make Shaft or T'Challa white.

But it doesn't matter when a character like the Hannibal Lecter franchise's Jack Crawford is played by Scott Glenn, Harvey Keitel, and Laurence Fishburne, because Crawford's race has nothing to do with the story. He's the same basic character whether he's played by Scott Glenn or Laurence Fishburne.

Same with Laurence Fishburne playing Perry White.

Same as it didn't matter when Morgan Freeman played Red in The Shawshank Redemption even though Red is white (and Irish) in the novella. Because again, it's irrelevant to the story and doesn't change anything.

I have no issue with casting Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon because there's nothing about Gordon's character that says he has to be white to be the same character. If it affects anything, then casting Gordon with a black man could subconsciously further accentuate his outsider status among Gotham's other cops.

Absolutely, 100%, THIS. I'm perfectly okay with casting someone of a different ethnicity so long as it doesn't significantly change the character and their backstory.

 

[Kane52630]

Yup. That world-weary hangdog look, which both Gary Oldman and J.K. Simmons had as well.

And if you think of it... Jeffrey Wright's got a somewhat familiar filmography to Gary Oldman. Early on he was taking roles where he's pretty unrecognizable like Basquiat and Peoples Hernandez.

 

[Blind Bat]

Absolutely, 100%, THIS. I'm perfectly okay with casting someone of a different ethnicity so long as it doesn't significantly change the character and their backstory.

This is a very good point. I like this casting because he's a great actor who I know can play a great Gordon but if, say, they decided to make up some kind of "dealing with racism in the police force" subplot I'd immediately hate it because then he ceases to be James Gordon, imo. Then he's truly just a PC character with a PSA message. They have to play the character like his comic counterpart for it to work, and I'm confident that's how it'll be.

 

[BatsAndNights]

This is a very good point. I like this casting because he's a great actor who I know can play a great Gordon but if, say, they decided to make up some kind of "dealing with racism in the police force" subplot I'd immediately hate it because then he ceases to be James Gordon, imo. Then he's truly just a PC character with a PSA message. They have to play the character like his comic counterpart for it to work, and I'm confident that's how it'll be.

I'd at the very least hope so. It's also why I wouldn't be big on, say, Bruce being played by an actor of a different ethnicity. Bruce Wayne's backstory involves a family which is quite heavily involved with old money, some incarnations, like White Knight, have the history of the Wayne's and their wealth going as far back as the 1700s if I remember right. Cast Bruce with a black actor, that immediately changes, as does the character himself arguably to the point of being nigh unrecognisable as Bruce Wayne.

 

[Schlosser85]

This is a very good point. I like this casting because he's a great actor who I know can play a great Gordon but if, say, they decided to make up some kind of "dealing with racism in the police force" subplot I'd immediately hate it because then he ceases to be James Gordon, imo. Then he's truly just a PC character with a PSA message. They have to play the character like his comic counterpart for it to work, and I'm confident that's how it'll be.

Yea, just let him play straight up Gordon. The race change isn’t relevant.

 

[Invader Joker]

Don't even comment on his race at all. If people wanna read some subtext there that's fine but don't explicitly say it.

 

[Kane52630]

"A PC character with a PSA message" is utter nonsense and kind of telling of your character if you immediately think that. You can make anything work if you write it well.

Plus we're talking about a corrupt police department here....

 

[B]

So-so casting for me, seen him in several projects over the years & he's not someone that springs to mind as being an obvious choice for Commissioner Gordon. So my initial reaction is simply 'meh'.

Visually, at least in this picture he looks very much like Lucious Fox from the Batman Arkham game(s) -

 

[super85]

I would have prefered him as Lucious Fox too.

 

[Blind Bat]

"A PC character with a PSA message" is utter nonsense and kind of telling of your character if you immediately think that. You can make anything work if you write it well.

Plus we're talking about a corrupt police department here....

Oh goodness, here we go *cue Benny Hill theme* When does JIM GORDON deal with that? Never. It's not part of his character at all. He wasn't attacked because of his race, but because he was a man of principle. And it should stay that way whether the character is black or white. If they changed the character to talk about police racism in the film then it's absolutely having a Public Service Announcement message. It's not really Jim Gordon at that point.

To clarify, I DON'T think that is the case here and I like this casting for Gordon, as I've said. The point I was making was that I agreed with the previous comment I had quoted about significantly changing a character's back story. You're the one acting like I said some kind of controversial thing.

 

[Marvel united]

Black officers deal with racism all the time in real life.

 

[Blind Bat]

I think we all realize that but is it necessary to highlight it in the movie, especially considering it isn't part of Gordon's back story at all? Is it so wrong to just want Jeffrey Wright to play comic Jim Gordon? Like I want Pattinson to play comic Batman? That's my point. Just play the character as he is in the sources, regardless of who is playing him. Gosh now I'm done talking about this... Anyone care to change topics and speculate on who else from the GCPD will be in the film? I hope we finally see Bullock and Crispus Allen in small parts. Montoya might be off limits given the Birds of Prey film but it'd be cool to see her, too.

 

[Marvel united]

I think we all realize that but is it necessary to highlight it in the movie, especially considering it isn't part of Gordon's back story at all? Is it so wrong to just want Jeffrey Wright to play comic Jim Gordon? Like I want Pattinson to play comic Batman? That's my point. Just play the character as he is in the sources, regardless of who is playing him. Gosh now I'm done talking about this... Anyone care to change topics and speculate on who else from the GCPD will be in the film? I hope we finally see Bullock and Crispus Allen in small parts. Montoya might be off limits given the Birds of Prey film but it'd be cool to see her, too.

This is an adaptation of the source material. Nobody will be "playing the comic". Pattinson will not use the comics as a substitute for the script, neither will Reeves or Hill or anybody else signed onto the movie. They are all playing new interpretations of these classic characters and- sometimes in a new interpretations, things change in accordance with the filmmaker's vision.

So Reeves possibly adding racial subtext to Jim Gordon would not suddenly ruin his character or make him NOT Jim Gordon. I'm not sure why it would be such a big deal to show that the corrupt GCPD cops might* also have a disdain for Jim because of him being black, on top of being morally just. It doesn't even change anything, it just adds a new layer to his character.

 

[Blind Bat]

You know what I mean when I say "comic Gordon" and "comic Batman". At this point it feels like you're being nit-picky about my words.

With regards to the police racism bit, it feels cheap and just trying to be relevant to today's social topics, imo. To me it even cheapens Gordon's portrayal as the ultmate honest cop in a town full of crooked ones (white and black alike). Remember back when Gordon transferred to Gotham he was supposed to be just one of the guys. Only when he refused to be part of their corruption did they turn on him and threaten his family. To make racism one of the main reasons he's outcasted by corrupt cops is taking away the fact that he CHOSE to not associate with them. They wanted him in and he said no. It takes the power away from his character. It ceases to be Jim Gordon, who Batman could trust not because he was outcasted by the corrupt, but because he was a good man. Race should have nothing to do with it. Just because he's black doesn't mean it has to be the highlighted aspect of his character. I would prefer they focus on his morality and toughness, like in the comics. See what I did there?

Anyway, who'd make a good Harvey Bullock? He'd need to have good chemistry with Wright on screen, being able to play off each other a bit.

 

[Sawyer]

They had a baby together. And that baby's name? Jeffrey Wright.

 

[BatLobster]

Honestly, his race can be part of the subtext that people can choose to read into it or not. I'd be very surprised if that became a more overt part of the story.

To me, by being a do-gooder in a corrupt city Gordon is an underdog. If there's any racial tension layered in there it only adds to that, but I'd say there's a low chance the movie would spell that out explicitly. It's still going to be designed as a 4 quadrant blockbuster meant to appeal to a mass, diverse audience and be a flagship superhero IP. It's not The Wire.

 

[flickchick85]

Anyway, who'd make a good Harvey Bullock? He'd need to have good chemistry with Wright on screen, being able to play off each other a bit.

I'd definitely pay good money to watch those two bounce off each other.

 

[Schlosser85]

I'd definitely pay good money to watch those two bounce off each other.

I don't know who that is offhand, but he has a Bullock look to him.

 

[flickchick85]

I don't know who that is offhand, but he has a Bullock look to him.

Holt McCallany from Mindhunter. He's an absolute gem on that show, imo.

 

[Eddie Dean]