With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s release date creeping ever closer, we should expect to hear more and more from the cast of the DC superhero ensemble over the coming months, and this week has seen both Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor) and Jeremy Irons (Alfred Pennyworth) offering up a few words on their roles.
“In a lot of ways Luthor is more of a stretch than any character you would do in an independent movie, which is normally the place you stretch,” Eisenberg tells the Observer. “So in that way it was not at all compromised. If anything it was the best, most advantageous role I’ve ever been given. It’s because the opportunity to do an interesting character on a movie of that scale is incredibly rare. Now people expect the tone to be more realistic just because we live in a world where the average audience member has a sense of psychological motivations… How can one man—Superman—have so much power? These are the kind of things that we talk about when we think about authoritarian states, when we talk about Vladimir Putin having a strong foothold in Eastern Europe. They’re addressing geopolitics in this movie and not in a way that’s pretentious or esoteric. [Screenwriter Chris Terrio] cleverly ties in these really exciting superhero elements with these really sophisticated, philosophical themes in a much smarter, different way. That’s what I like to do with my writing: To have these very sophisticated, philosophical debates happen on very basic levels.”
SEE ALSO: Zack Snyder on rumours that Batman v Superman will focus more on The Dark Knight
Meanwhile, speaking to the Toronto Sun at the Toronto International Film Festival, Jeremy Irons has once again promised a very different Alfred to those we’ve seen previously on the screen: “Zack Snyder, the director, wanted to create a completely different Alfred. So I felt I didn’t have to carry any baggage from previous ones. It’s sort of a reincarnation if you’d like. I had a feeling I was creating my own Alfred, more of a man who can actually do anything if he has to.”
SEE ALSO: Follow all our Batman v Superman coverage here
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is set for release on March 25th 2016 and sees Zack Snyder directing a cast that includes returning Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill (Superman), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Martha Kent), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White), Harry Lennix (General Swanwick), Michael Shannon (General Zod) and Christina Wren (Carrie Farris) alongside Ben Affleck (Argo) as Batman, Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious 6) as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) as Aquaman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me) as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons (The Borgias) as Alfred Pennyworth, Holly Hunter (The Piano) as Senator Finch, Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine) as Mercy Graves, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) as Thomas Wayne and Jena Malone (Sucker Punch), Callan Mulvey (300: Rise of an Empire), and Scoot McNairy (Argo) in as-yet-unrevealed roles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 16, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
