‘Pennyworth’ Will Feature Alfred’s Hot Young Butler Battling The Grandkids Of Jack The Ripper
Everyone is getting the “hot, young” treatment these days, so why not Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s loyal and trustworthy butler? The once stiff-lipped butler has already received a devil-may-care makeover in the Fox prequel seriesGotham, butPennyworthis kicking things up a notch. According toPennyworthplot details shared by executive producerDanny Cannon, this Alfred (played byJack Bannon) is a toughened former SAS soldier living in swinging ’60s London and battling the descendants of…Jack the Ripper?
Before he met American billionaire Thomas Wayne and took on an orphaned Bruce Wayne as his ward, Alfred Pennyworth was a badass who was fighting crime across the pond in 1960s London. Which, of course, means thatPennyworthwill draw from the vast well of fictional and real-life British villains. But for some reason, that almost always means some variant of Jack the Ripper.
Gothamexecutive producer Danny Cannon shared some details about the upcoming prequel seriesPennyworth, which will starThe Imitation Game’s Jack Bannon as a young Alfred Pennyworth just coming off his service as a British SAS soldier who forms a security company and becomes employed by Thomas Wayne. “It’s twenty-something years beforeGotham, it’s a very different world,“Cannon told Deadlineat the TCA winter tour. “It’s not the England we know. It looks and feels like, but if you look a little closer, [you ask], ‘Why is that like that? Why is that building there? What war is he talking about?'” He added:
This won’t be the first time a Batman property has dealt with Jack the Ripper. The DC Comics one-shotGotham by Gaslight, which was adapted into a 2018 animated film, saw Batman tussling with the infamous serial killer in anElseworldsstoryline. It’s a little predictable forPennyworthto conjure up Jack the Ripper — I’m sorry, hisdescendants— as a villain of the series, but he’ll probably remain an object of fascination for storytellers, comic book and otherwise, for a long time.
Cannon promises a completely “unhinged, R-rated” series withPennyworth, which is unsurprising considering the series plans to feature the descendants of an infamous serial killer. But from the details shared by Cannon, the series is shaping up to be aJames BondmeetsKingsman-style show, which is promising.
Written and executive produced byGotham’sBruno Heller,Pennyworthwill run for 10 episodes and premiere on Epix sometime inJune 2019.
