Jeffrey Wright hits out at “racist and stupid” backlash to his casting in ‘The Batman’
Jeffrey Wright has responded to backlash to his casting in The Batman, which he has labelled as “racist and stupid”.
In the 2022 movie, which starred Robert Pattinson as the superhero, Wright played Commissioner Jim Gordon, who is in charge of the Gotham City Police Department.
He is set to reprise his role for the sequel, which is set to go into production next year ahead of a planned 2027 release. However, Wright is aware of the criticism of his portrayal of the character due to Gordon being white in the original comics.
Wright explained to Collider in a recent interview: “I really find it fascinating the ways in which there’s such a conversation, and I think even more of a conversation now, about Black characters in these roles.”
The American actor continued: “It’s just so fucking racist and stupid. It’s just so blind in a way that I find revealing to not recognize that the evolution of these films reflects the evolution of society, that somehow it’s defiling this franchise not to keep it grounded in the cultural reality of 1939 when the comic books were first published. It’s just the dumbest thing. It’s absent all logic.”
Similarly, Paapa Essiedu has also recently been on the receiving end of criticism after he was cast as Severus Snape, previously played by Alan Rickman, in the upcoming HBO reboot of Harry Potter.
While Essiedu has remained silent, Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy in the original movies, leapt to his defence at FanExpo Denver in July to state: “Paapa Essiedu is one of the best actors I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve seen some people online who are being rude about him. What they’re being is racist.”
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