Jeffrey Wright IS Commissioner Gordon

[OutOfBoose]

I'm not interested at all on Gordon's PoV. I'd prefer the movie to stay entirely from Batman's side.

Year One has extensive Gordon POV and it was done masterfully. I'd be up for it, but Batman having a movie entirely to himself is long overdue.

 

[fan4stic]

I get that people are trying to be funny, but to be fair, when has Gordon ever been played by a ginger? Gary Oldman has brown hair, JK Simmons has gray hair, Pat Hingle had gray hair and the guy from '66 Batman had gray hair... who is this mythical ginger that has played Gordon? Did I miss someone?

Unless that was the point...

Can't believe this will be the first Gordon without flowing hair of crimson fire.

Can't believe this will be the first Gordon without the beautiful strip of red patch we call his mustache.

**Cries***

He has never been a red head in the movies. But ppl just want to complain.

I don't think of hair color as being a prominently aesthetic aspect for a lot of characters. Barbara Gordon is one of those characters that I prefer red hair for. Jim not really.

 

[Da-Scribe]

On the red hair, ya never know. Wright could be rocking the Malcolm X.

 

[signalman]

Would you guys like to see a suicidal/depressed Gordon ?

Someones who's on the edge of breaking down, desperate with everything wrong in this town so that he turns to the Bat because it's the only thing that makes sense for him?

He's just thinking : What could be worse?

That's Jim Gordon as voiced by Chris Meloni on the HARLEY QUINN animated series.
Totally bonkers telling everyone about his poor sex life with his wife.
Very Funny.

Of course, they would have do a serious suicidal Gordon on a verge of a break down in a live-action drama movie.
But it not something I really want to see.

 

[DKDetective]

On the red hair, ya never know. Wright could be rocking the Malcolm X.

I'm not super invested in the red hair, since it is a modern invention from Batman: Year One and and Gordon had white/grey hair for 40 years prior. But now that you put that mental image in my head, it would actually be really cool if they did that with Wright. I think it could look great on Wright. It was be also be a hilariously great dig at the racist critics, if our first redheaded cinematic Gordon was black.

 

[ItsOver8000]

I'm not super invested in the red hair, since it is a modern invention from Batman: Year One and and Gordon had white/grey hair for 40 years prior. But now that you put that mental image in my head, it would actually be really cool if they did that with Wright. I think it could look great on Wright. It was be also be a hilariously great dig at the racist critics, if our first redheaded cinematic Gordon was black.

Given how Hollywood hates Red Headed Female Characters good luck with that

 

[Arachnerd]

Karen Gillan says hi.

 

[DKDetective]

Karen Gillan says hi.

Who is most famous for playing a bald, blue cyborg...

 

[Invader Joker]

 

[chintai80]

cool about how wright mentions adam west's batman.
seems like them and nolan were all fans of the show growing up.

batman 66 is like batman 101 intro for kids, esp the generation from 1960-80s it seems.

 

[Langstrom Karlo]

Can’t lie, I’m still not pleased with this casting at all. Wright is a great actor, no doubt! However, he is not Jim Gordon. I know people will say “race shouldn’t matter to these characters” but it does. Aesthetics are crucial to a character, if it wasn’t then people would be fine with changing Batman’s costume to pink feety pajamas. I’m just annoyed with changing race of characters for the sake of it, Perry White I didn’t mind, Nick Fury I was indifferent, HATED Johnny Storm and Wally West and with Gordon I’m irritated. Before you all claim me to be racist, I’d be JUST as annoyed if they tried to have a white man play Spawn or Black Panther etc. I’m fine with Wright being the only prominent cop in the film that interacts with Batman, but just don’t call him Gordon.

 

[Fincher]

It was be also be a hilariously great dig at the racist critics, if our first redheaded cinematic Gordon was black.

Personally, I think only a subset of white people are well suited to red hair, and going by their choices it would seem that filmmakers tend to agree. Redheads (or blondes) who are racebent tend to either not have the hair color or have it toned down. Starfire on the Titans show had pinkish-red hair, and in my experience pink hair suits black women specifically (look at Zendaya in The Greatest Showman). Black Canary in Birds of Prey is really more light brown instead of blonde. Or consider Melissa Benoist as Supergirl. She's white (obviously), but she isn't that suited to being blonde, so they gave her a darker blonde that complemented her better rather than recreate the brighter blonde of the comics.

Now whether this makes any difference depends on who you ask. I don't care in Jim Gordon's case, and I'm not even terribly concerned with Barbara, although if it was all the same I'd have her be a white redhead. I'm just saying that while you might like them to stick it to the critics, it's more likely that they cast Wright because they didn't care about the hair color in the first place. While you'll often hear fans say that they don't care about race as long as the character has the hair color, I don't think most filmmakers make that distinction at all. They racebend because they consider the character's look flexible.

 

[Schlosser85]

Can’t lie, I’m still not pleased with this casting at all. Wright is a great actor, no doubt! However, he is not Jim Gordon. I know people will say “race shouldn’t matter to these characters” but it does. Aesthetics are crucial to a character, if it wasn’t then people would be fine with changing Batman’s costume to pink feety pajamas. I’m just annoyed with changing race of characters for the sake of it, Perry White I didn’t mind, Nick Fury I was indifferent, HATED Johnny Storm and Wally West and with Gordon I’m irritated. Before you all claim me to be racist, I’d be JUST as annoyed if they tried to have a white man play Spawn or Black Panther etc. I’m fine with Wright being the only prominent cop in the film that interacts with Batman, but just don’t call him Gordon.

Black Panther's race is important to his character, Gordon's isn't. Gordon being black doesn't change anything anymore than it did with Perry White or Nick Fury, so I don't get why you care about this and not those.

 

[shauner111]

There is no reason to be mad about Gordon being black. A lot of people think Wright is part white btw. But Mahershala Ali was Reeves’ first choice. Did Reeves want a black actor to play him? Or was he just looking for good actors who can play a weary cop extremely well? With Jim, it doesn’t matter. Don’t give me the red hair b.s. The colour of hair means nothing. It’s not the Joker.

I honestly do question the whole “I’m not racist I swear!” when a character like this could be white or black and NOTHING would be changed in terms of characterization. I feel the same way about Harvey Dent and Selina Kyle. I’m sorry but if you get mad that those characters aren’t white, I’m gonna start judging you.

 

[Zorro]

Usually I'm against race changing but Jeffrey Wright will very much be Jim Gordon if the characterization is done accurate. If Jim is how he usually is across all media then I'll accept Wright

 

[TheSmoothKnight]

We got a bunch of Batman fanboys working on this movie lol

 

[Arachnerd]

Can’t lie, I’m still not pleased with this casting at all. Wright is a great actor, no doubt! However, he is not Jim Gordon. I know people will say “race shouldn’t matter to these characters” but it does. Aesthetics are crucial to a character, if it wasn’t then people would be fine with changing Batman’s costume to pink feety pajamas. I’m just annoyed with changing race of characters for the sake of it, Perry White I didn’t mind, Nick Fury I was indifferent, HATED Johnny Storm and Wally West and with Gordon I’m irritated. Before you all claim me to be racist, I’d be JUST as annoyed if they tried to have a white man play Spawn or Black Panther etc. I’m fine with Wright being the only prominent cop in the film that interacts with Batman, but just don’t call him Gordon.

You speak as if Gordon hasn't had a lot of live-action interpretations played by caucasian actors in the past. Changing his race here isn't a big deal with that in mind.

 

[Langstrom Karlo]

I honestly do question the whole “I’m not racist I swear!” when a character like this could be white or black and NOTHING would be changed

Come on man, that’s such weak sauce.. so because I want a character to look the way they traditionally have for their entire existence then that makes you question my stance on being superior to another race? Lol boy are you barking up the wrong tree, one of my 3 brothers is half black and I love that kid with all my heart so if I’m racist then I’m doing a lousy job. Your logic befuddles me...

 

[shauner111]

Didn’t say you were. I believe you. But most the time it makes me question. It takes nothing away if he’s not white. THAT befuddles me.

 

[OutOfBoose]

It's not an issue storytelling-wise. But comics is a visual medium as well. You get attached to depiction. And when it's ignored, I can't be really happy about the choice. For example, I really love the goth look of Domino. But they racebent her in DP2 and so no goth chick assassin for me. Sad. Still salty about it.

 

[Langstrom Karlo]

Didn’t say you were. I believe you. But most the time it makes me question. It takes nothing away if he’s not white. THAT befuddles me.

It just seems blatantly disrespectful to the fans who know him a certain way. I mean truth be told, I was never a fan of Pat Hingle as Gordon either, he was a tad too overweight and his mannerisms/characterization(that probably being Hamm and Burton’s fault) just didn’t align with my own interpretation of him. Like I said, Wright is a great actor, but he just doesn’t feel like Gordon to me and no amount of great acting in the film will make me feel otherwise.

 

[Stringer]

Sucks to be you then.

 

[flickchick85]

It just seems blatantly disrespectful to the fans who know him a certain way.

We all know him a certain way. I know him as a world-weary cop who's seen better days, thinks he's seen it all and remains stubbornly determined to do the right thing in a city/system that wants to make him do anything but. Jeffrey Wright is pitch perfect casting for the Jim Gordon I know. An even more obvious choice for such a character to me than Gary Oldman was. His appearance as drawn by different artists throughout the years in comics and animation has varied in little ways and has had zero bearing on him remaining the Jim Gordon I know, and neither will his appearance in this.

 

[Blade Hoarder]

I wonder where all these Gordon purists were when we got Gordon In Name Only in the Burton films?

Seems no one cared then. His appearance has only been in contention once the black guy came in.

Also, notice how there is no debate about Collin Farrell looking absolutely nothing like Penguin. Isn't that funny?

 

[Invader Joker]

We all know him a certain way. I know him as a world-weary cop who's seen better days, thinks he's seen it all and remains stubbornly determined to do the right thing in a city/system that wants to make him do anything but. Jeffrey Wright is pitch perfect casting for the Jim Gordon I know. An even more obvious choice for such a character to me than Gary Oldman was. His appearance as drawn by different artists throughout the years in comics and animation has varied in little ways and has had zero bearing on him remaining the Jim Gordon I know, and neither will his appearance in this.

I have to disagree there. Gordon has been a very consistently drawn character in the comics. The only different is he sometimes has grey hair and he sometimes has brown hair.