Having originally signed on to a three-film deal to portray the DC Extended Universe’s Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, actor J.K. Simmons seemingly found his tenure cut short after the critical and commercial failure of Justice League and the crumbling of Ben Affleck’s incarnation of The Batman.
However, just as he has with J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home and the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, Simmons has found himself with the opportunity to revisit the role having signed on return to the DCEU as Gordon in Batgirl, Warner Bros.’ HBO Max movie starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon. And, speaking to Josh Horowitz of Happy Sad Confused, the Oscar-winner has shared a few words about the project and his preparation.
“When I first signed up to do Justice League, it was a three-picture deal… As is often the case, that didn’t come to fruition for a variety of reasons,” states Simmons. “I was completely flabbergasted they came back to me recently and wanted me to be Commissioner Gordon again and have it be a more significant role. I’m looking forward to it. I think I’m going to get on the horn to [Leslie Grace] and the directors in the next couple of days and do little preliminary rehearsals.
“They start very soon and I jump on board sometime in January in Glasgow which is a wonderful place to shoot it as it’s Gothic,” he continues. “I’m excited to be the once and future Jim Gordon. I had a long discussion with the guys about how we want to portray him. It’s a really interesting take on introducing Batgirl and fleshing Jim Gordon out.”
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Batgirl is being directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life) and stars Leslie Grace (In the Heights) as Barbara Gordon, J.K. Simmons reprising his Justice League role as Commission Gordon, Brendan Fraser (Doom Patrol) as Firefly and Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys for Life) in an as-yet-unrevealed role.
Batgirl is expected to premiere on HBO Max at some point in 2022.