There certainly is no shortage of Batman prequel stories at the moment. Gotham will soon be ending its fourth season, with next year to be its final season. The series chronicles the early days of Jim Gordon in the Gotham Police Department, as well as Bruce Wayne after the death of his parents. Now, it seems that we’ll get the story of the Wayne family’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth.
Today, DC announced that Epix will be a ten-part drama series starring Batman’s trusted companion. While many fans think of Alfred as the old butler aiding Bruce Wayne fighting crime, there is much more to the character than meets the eye. Comic books have established him to have a military background, so the series will likely show how he came to work for the Waynes.
Via the press release:
Premium cable network EPIX(R) announced today a straight-to-series greenlight of the DC origin story PENNYWORTH, from Warner Horizon Scripted Television, executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (Gotham, The Mentalist, Rome) and executive producer/director Danny Cannon (Gotham, CSI series).
The ten-episode, one-hour drama series is based on DC characters created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger. It follows Bruce Wayne’s legendary butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a former British SAS soldier who forms a security company and goes to work with Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s billionaire father, in 1960’s London. Production will begin later this year, with a series premiere slated for 2019.
Said Michael Wright, President, EPIX, “As genuine fans of these classic DC characters, as well as the incredibly talented Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, we couldn’t be more excited to make EPIX the home of this series. We can’t wait to work with Bruno and Danny – along with Peter Roth, Susan Rovner, Brett Paul and the team at Warner Horizon – on this fantastic origin story.”
Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon said, “Michael and his colleagues have created the perfect venue for original storytelling, and all of us working on PENNYWORTH are thrilled to be on the EPIX slate.”
What do you think of this news? Will you be interested in learning more about the history of Alfred Pennyworth?
