The One Classic Batman Villain Jack Bannon Wants To See On Pennyworth - Exclusive
"Pennyworth" creator Bruno Heller and writer and producer John Stephens have made it pretty clear that there won't be any major "Batman" villains in the show. However, it's still fun to speculate. The duo told Looper that they got away with alluding to the Joker on "Gotham" multiple times, but the studio has since cracked down on not-so-subtle homages to major "Batman" characters. Well, there goes the actors' and fans' hopes for classic villainous cameos — but that just means that "Pennyworth" gets to stand apart from what's come before.
The prequel series centers around the origin story of everyone's favorite "Batman" butler, Alfred Pennyworth, played by Jack Bannon. There's no doubt that the show holds its own without a ton of "Batman" universe cameos, but hey, actors can dream, right?
"Pennyworth" invited Looper to the New York Comic Con press room, where we spoke exclusively spoke to Bannon, who named the major "Batman" villain he wants on the show and the biggest rewards of giving a backstory to his iconic character.
Ha, ha, ha (It's probably not going to happen)
When we asked him whether there are any classic "Batman" villains or heroes that he'd like to see have a cameo on the show, Jack Bannon said, "I'd like to see the Joker. That would be great. But the great thing about 'Pennyworth' is we can pick from normal literature or anything and blend real-life villains or comic-book villains. But the Joker would be good for me." It's safe to say that we probably won't see the Joker on "Pennyworth," but if "Gotham" taught us anything, it's that Bruno Heller and John Stephens are pretty crafty guys.
For Bannon, the most exciting aspect of the series isn't the possibility of fun cameos, but rather getting to explore the largely untapped origin story of Alfred. He noted, "The great thing about it is that everybody loves Bruce Wayne. Everybody loves Batman and Alfred's relationship with him, but we don't know how Alfred knows all this stuff, how he's so wise. This series explores that." Bannon summed up Season 3 in three words: "Psychedelic, sexy, colorful."
New episodes of "Pennyworth" stream Thursdays on HBO Max.