Pierce Brosnan portrays Doctor Fate in Black Adam, giving him a better DC Comics-based role than Batman would have been for the actor. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stars as Black Adam in the eponymous movie, which also brings numerous other DC superheroes to the big screen in the form of the Justice Society of America. Among the JSA's members in Black Adam is Nelson Kent, a.k.a. Doctor Fate. In playing the character, Pierce Brosnan makes up for not being cast as Batman.
Back in the late 1980s when Tim Burton was searching for an actor who could play Bruce Wayne in Batman, Pierce Brosnan was among the candidates considered. Brosnan explained in a Reddit AMA that he and Burton even met, but the actor ultimately declined the role. Despite admitting to having loved Batman as a child, Bronson said, "I just couldn’t really take it seriously," lamenting, "That was my foolish take on it."
Pierce Brosnan, of course, would go on to great acclaim in the role of James Bond with 1995's Goldeneye (before that, Brosnan almost played 007 in The Living Daylights). Meanwhile, the actor's general body of work and most especially his performance in the James Bond role are strong indicators that Batman was never the ideal superhero role for Brosnan to tackle. However, his strengths as an actor are very well-suited for Doctor Fate.
Brosnan's Suave Persona Is A Better Fit For Doctor Fate Than Batman
As James Bond, Pierce Brosnan channeled the charm of 007 in a way that made his portrayal stand out (the Irish-born Brosnan's accent even fooled many American viewers into believing he was an Englishman). As an elder statesman kind of hero among the Justice Society of America, Doctor Fate is a calm and centered sorcerer, arguably the most cultured and erudite of the heroes in the movie and certainly far more so than the titular antihero, Black Adam. Brosnan brings exactly the kind of persona and gravitas to Doctor Fate that the character calls for, but Batman is a whole other kind of hero.
While Pierce Brosnan's suave personality could have worked well for Bruce Wayne, the character's nightly shift into the Caped Crusader is one of becoming a dark, urban vigilante. With how much Brosnan's debonair image is among his greatest strengths, the requisite abandonment of it under Batman's cowl would have been both a big loss as well an overly pronounced Jekyll and Hyde turn far beyond what Batman's normal transformation mandates. In Black Adam, Brosnan's portrayal of Doctor Fate enables him to bring all of his greatest talents to a different superhero role involving capes.
In the end, Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton as Batman, which wound up being for the best for both Keaton and Pierce Brosnan's careers. With Brosnan not taking on a superhero role until Doctor Fate in Black Adam, what he brings to the role makes it a much better entry point into comic book movies than Batman would have been.
