The Batman took a slightly different approach to exploring Bruce Wayne's dynamic with Alfred Pennyworth, making the Dark Knight's butler a hardened former soldier who clearly wasn't fully on board with the hero's mission to save Gotham City.
One of the movie's most memorable scenes came when it appeared The Riddler had killed Alfred. Fortunately, it was a fake-out, albeit one that led to Alfred shedding new light on Thomas Wayne's past (deepening his and Bruce's relationship in the process).
Talking to Josh Horowitz, Andy Serkis reflected on his approach to playing Alfred and how he perceives the role that Batman's right-hand man plays in his surrogate son's one-man war on crime.
"I mean, I wanted Alfred to... you know, actually Matt and I were really investigating the role of the father figure, you know, and what that is in real life to us. He has his version. I certainly have mine. I had a very distant father, and my own kind of feelings of being a father and being sort of separated from my family a lot due to work. So that was the thing. Alfred represented a sort of... he had a lack of paternal instinct but wanted it, but couldn't ever get there. And at the moment of greatest need for Bruce, you know, he wasn't there for his parents. And so he was carrying that guilt."
"And it was just the desire to try... I think there's a real desire to make amends for that, which is what their connection was. He could teach him skills, he could teach him things that he'd learned. I wanted him to feel like he was once in the SAS, did work for private military companies, did end up becoming private security for the upper echelons, and then ending up obviously working for Wayne Enterprises. So I wanted him grounded in being a soldier who had worked his way up into a position where he could teach physical skills to young Bruce, but not emotional skills."
Serkis is currently gearing up to shoot The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, meaning there was a very real possibility that he'd have been unable to return for The Batman Part II.
Despite refusing to give any details away, Serkis praised Matt Reeves and Mattson Tomlin's script and confirmed that any potential scheduling issues have now been worked out. However, "it's going to be tight," which perhaps suggests that Alfred will have a relatively small role in the sequel.
"It's amazing. It's a great script, it really is. And again, I'm not going to say anything whatsoever about it," the Animal Farm helmer teased. "And actually, the great thing is I'm going to be able to do it because we figured the schedule out, you know. So it's going to be tight, but we'll get there."
When Horowitz put it to him that Robert Pattinson has described The Batman Part II as deep, dark, and emotional, a clearly excited Serkis said he agrees with those adjectives.
Directed by Matt Reeves from a script by him and Mattson Tomlin, The Batman Part II stars Robert Pattinson, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis, Jeffrey Wright, and Charles Dance.
The Batman Part II is set to be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.