The Batman's Alfred Is Younger Than Normal

The Batman's Alfred Pennyworth actor is younger than most to take the role, and this hints at an interesting direction for Matt Reeves' upcoming movie. After a slow start caused by a mixture of DCEU indecision and the uncertain involvement of previous Batman actor, Ben Affleck, 2019 finally saw Matt Reeves' The Batman make progress. Once Robert Pattinson was confirmed as the Caped Crusader himself, the supporting cast was rapidly fleshed out and now includes Paul Dano as The Riddler, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Farrell as The Penguin and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. One of the most intriguing cast additions, however, was the announcement of Andy Serkis as Bruce Wayne's loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

Alfred has been portrayed by a number of renowned actors over the years, one of the more recent being Sean Pertwee in Gotham. Billed as a Batman prequel series centered around a young Detective Gordon, Gotham showed Bruce Wayne as a child, with the series premiere set on the night of the Wayne murders. As such, it's no surprise that Pertwee was notably younger than previous actors to play Batman's home help. Pertwee was 54 by the time of Gotham finished, whereas Michael Gough and Michael Caine were both in their 70s and Jeremy Irons was in his mid-late 60s.

Because Gotham was a prequel, the younger Alfred made perfect sense. Curiously, however, Andy Serkis was born in the same year as Pertwee and will be playing Alfred to a grown-up Batman, years after the Wayne murders. In other words, the new Alfred is young enough to serve a Bruce Wayne many years younger than Robert Pattinson's.

The Batman's fresher-faced butler adds several fascinating implications to the Dark Knight's latest movie adventure. Firstly, Andy Serkis' casting further drives home how The Batman will chart the early years of Bruce's crime-fighting career. Matt Reeves has already revealed images of Pattinson's Batsuit and Batmobile, and both give a distinctly amateurish impression. For example, the cowl has visible stitching and the Batmobile is a modified street-legal car, rather than a small tank. The fact that Bruce's new Alfred is played by a younger actor than usual adds to that overall sense of an early-era Batman.

More importantly, Serkis' casting could potentially mean The Batman will feature a more physical, action-ready Alfred Pennyworth. Sean Pertwee's character in Gotham regularly got into scraps alongside his young charge, shooting down villains and protecting Bruce by force when necessary. The TV series also includes sequences where Alfred personally trains young Bruce, passing on knowledge and skills acquired as a British special ops agent. The Batman could now go down a similar path, allowing Serkis to bust a few baddies of his own, rather than just serving tea and making amusing comments on Batman's career choice. This would be a huge deviation for the Batman movies, and would certainly help differentiate Matt Reeves' movie from its predecessors.

On the other hand, The Batman's younger Alfred may simply be another example of what has become known as "the Aunt May effect." In the Spider-Man movies, the age of Peter Parker's Aunt has famously decreased over the years, from Rosemary Harris to Marisa Tomei, roughly a quarter of a century younger. Perhaps the same phenomenon is now occurring with Batman's Alfred. Even without taking Gotham into account, there was an age drop from Caine to Irons; Serkis could be the next step in a gradual de-aging of another iconic comic book mentor figure.

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