Say what you will about Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, but both movies had amazing casts. The same can obviously be said for Justice League, with one of the most exciting additions without a doubt Oscar winning actor J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) as Commissioner Jim Gordon.
During set visits earlier this year, reporters confirmed that he shares a scene with the Justice League, but in a new interview, Simmons confirmed that the majority of Gordon’s screentime is with Batman. That’s to be expected, especially as this movie likely sets the stage for him to return in Ben Affleck’s solo outing for the Caped Crusader.
“Yeah, mostly with Ben. In this first installment of the Justice League, Commissioner Gordon is not a particularly sizable part. We just kind of introduce him and see a little bit of his interactions with Batman — and with most of the Justice League. My part is done. They are filming that for basically most of 2016, so some of the superheroes are still at work in jolly old London, but I’m back home with my family.”
Director Zack Snyder came under a lot of fire after both Man of Steel and Batman V Superman, but Simmons had nothing but good things to say about working alongside the filmmaker.
“That was a really fun set. Zack [Snyder] runs sort of a big, happy family and it’s obviously, in many ways, a very different work environment when you’re working on a big, giant movie like that than a relatively small movie like The Meddler. But at the end of the day, the director is the one who sets the tone. And one of the things that Zack and Lorene have in common is they’re just nice, smart, competent, fun people that you don’t mind spending a 12-hour day with.”
Simmons has a lot of experience in the superhero movie realm after starring in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, so hearing him praise Snyder is obviously great. Of course, given his limited role in Justice League, his comments can’t be taken as any sort of indication that the movie will be a vast improvement over what’s come before.
The signs are definitely pointing to that being the case so far though, and we’ll hopefully get our first look at Commissioner Jim Gordon in Justice League sooner rather than later.