Mahershala Ali Matt Reeves’ First Choice for Jim Gordon in Batman
Two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali was reportedly The Batman director Matt Reeves’ “first choice” for the role of Commissioner Jim Gordon, according to scooper Jeff Sneider, who says Ali’s casting in the lead role of Marvel Studios’ Blade reboot “probably took that off the table.”
Sneider talks in a Podcast
“Now that he’s got his own Marvel movie, I don’t know that he’s looking to do yet another comic book movie,” Sneider says a podcast. “But I’m pretty sure he was Matt Reeves’ first choice for Commissioner Gordon in The Batman.”
“When they approached me, what they said was, ‘Look, it’s a standalone. This isn’t part of the Extended Universe,’” Reeves said in an interview.
Reeves gives clarification
Reeves later clarified those comments in August 2017, writing on Twitter, “Just to be clear: Of COURSE Batman will be part of the D.C. Universe. Batman will be BATMAN…”
“In my comments from a while back about not being part of the DCEU, I was talking about Batman being a story specifically about Batman,” Reeves explained in subsequent tweets. “Not about the others in the Universe. That it wouldn’t be filled with cameos servicing other stories — that it would be a BATMAN story.”
Aquaman is very different
Earlier this year, Reeves was firm on his stance The Batman doesn’t need to connect to other Warner Bros. DC Comics productions.
“Aquaman is going to be very different from the Todd Phillips Joker movie, and that’s going to be different from Shazam and [Birds of Prey]. Warners believes they don’t have to try to develop a giant slate that has to have all the plans for how it’s going to connect,” Reeves told THR in January. “What they need to try and do is make good movies with these characters.”
