The Batman star, Jeffrey Wright, recalls the frightening moment when production of the film shut down last year. After the release of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad this summer, Matt Reeves' The Batman will be DC's next effort towards a looser sense of continuity across its cinematic entries. The film will reportedly be set on the DCEU's Earth-2, which means its introduction of Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader bears no relation to the two Batmen, Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton, who will be reprising their roles in the mainline DCEU film, The Flash.
Along with Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, the film has assembled an all-new cast to portray the usual Batman supporting characters. Andy Serkis takes on the role of his loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and Westworld and What If...?'s Jeffrey Wright will channel Gotham City's Commissioner, Jim Gordon. Zoë Kravitz will appear as Selina Kyle/Catwoman to aid the Dark Knight in his fight against more than one iconic DC villain, namely Edward Nashton/The Riddler (Paul Dano) and Colin Farrell's Penguin as the film's secondary antagonist.
During an interview at the Telluride Film Festival to promote his role in Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, Jeffrey Wright recalled the chaotic experience that was filming The Batman at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Per IndieWire, Wright specifically remembers the moment an actor coughed in between takes and “every head in the room swiveled toward that.” The next day, the DC film shut down production in the UK due to a positive COVID test. Wright recounted the frightening experience which can be read below:
I was having conversations with [producer Dylan Wright] where I was like, "Hey, man, what exactly are we going to be doing here going forward?" At that time, there were no travel restrictions from the UK, but the numbers were rising. I called my agent and said, "We have to get out of here. We may be isolated here. There’s no way in hell we’re going to be shooting. It’s about to go down."
Wright did not specify what actor had coughed on set or who tested positive for the virus, but many reports indicated it was leading star Robert Pattinson. However, Warner Bros. nor Pattinson's camp have ever confirmed such. This had to be a tumultuous experience for everyone involved in the production of The Batman since the onset of the pandemic in March had already resulted in a six-month delay. It was only three days after production resumed in September that an actor tested positive.
After these delays, The Batman was finally able to resume production two weeks later with new safety measures. The project was finally able to wrap filming in March of this year and is now set for a release in March 2022. Though production of The Batman was much lengthier and more chaotic than anyone expected it would be, the bright side is that only one actor got sick, fully recovered, and filming was able to resume shortly, as the situation could have easily spiraled into much worse.
Source: IndieWire
