Commissioner Gordon is a key part of the Batman mythos, but the role hasn’t been recast quite as often as that of the Dark Knight himself across the comic book legend’s long and illustrious big screen career.
Pat Hingle was a mainstay of the original series from Tim Burton’s 1989 opener to Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, before Gary Oldman stepped in to lend his gravitas to Christopher Nolan’s beloved trilogy. J.K. Simmons didn’t get much to do in Justice League, though, but he’ll be making his return as the mustachioed cop later this year in HBO Max’s Batgirl.
Jeffrey Wright inherits the part of the Caped Crusader’s closest ally in The Batman, and in a neat twist of fate, the actor has shared a throwback photo of himself with Gary Oldman taken all the way back in 1995, as you can see below.
Hollywood is full of little coincidences like this, which is par for the course where everybody seems to know everybody else in one way or another, but it’s nonetheless fun to see two esteemed actors that have both played one of the most recognizable figures in comic book history hanging out, long before either of them were hired for the part in a blockbuster feature film.