Teaser for Pennyworth TV series gives Batman’s butler an origin story

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Although Gotham will be coming to an end next month, our next Batman-related TV show will once again be a prequel series. Coming from Gotham executive producers Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, Pennyworth is set to tell the origin of Bruce Wayne's future butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon), in a story set in 1960's London. After completing his service as a British SAS soldier, the young and charismatic Alfred Pennyworth forms a security company and finds an employer in Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge).

Epix has now released a very brief teaser trailer which provides us with a glimpse inside the world of Pennyworth, and Danny Cannon has previously hinted that that world may be quite different to what we're expecting. "It’s twentysomething years before Gotham, it’s a very different world," Cannon said. "This is the DC version of 1960s London. It’s not the England we know. It looks and feels like, but if you look a little closer, [you ask], ‘Why is that like that? Why is that building there? What war is he talking about?'" Cannon also said that Pennyworth will be a completely "unhinged, R-rated" series, especially when compared to Gotham. As far as villains go, we likely won't be seeing ancestors of characters such as the Joker or Penguin, but rather "archetypal villains and classic villains of British literature," which Cannon teases could include descendants of Jack the Ripper.

Along with Jack Bannon as Pennyworth and Ben Aldridge as Thomas Wayne, the series also stars Paloma Faith as Alfred’s main adversary, Bet Sykes, who is described as a "spirited, sadistic and sharp-tongued villain." Bet's sister, Peggy Sykes (Polly Walker), is one of Lancashire’s busiest and most successful dominatrixes. The sensible matriarch in a family of maniacs, Peggy is fiercely loyal, endlessly resourceful and lives by her own strange but rigorous moral code. Jason Flemyng plays baddie Lord Harwood. According to Cannon, the reaction they've had from test audiences so far has been incredibly positive. The 10-episode series is set to debut on Epix later this year.