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Pennyworth Audition Tapes: Alfred Needs To Kidnap Thomas Wayne
Audition tapes for Pennyworth, an upcoming Epix TV show about the young life of Alfred Pennyworth, recently surfaced hinting at a potential plot that involves the kidnapping of Thomas Wayne. Although the series will focus on Alfred, these audition tapes indicate that the show will quickly connect itself to the Waynes, and possibly, to a young Bruce Wayne, who will later become Batman.
Epix recently announced plans for a Pennyworth TV series that would focus on Alfred's life before he became a butler for Bruce Wayne. The show will pick up just after Alfred leaves the S.A.S., the British secret forces. Alfred will then meet Thomas Wayne and form a "secret company" with the millionaire. Although Alfred's original comic book origin had him following in his father's footsteps as serving as butler to the Waynes, this origin story is modified, following more in line with the Alfred fans know from Fox's Gotham TV series.
The GWW posted leaked audition tapes for Pennyworth, with Outlander's Tom Brittney reading for the role. The tapes reveal that Alfred is a selfish young man who doesn't think too highly of the wealthy. In the audition, he has a conversation with an unknown man about kidnapping Thomas Wayne for an unknown organization. In return, that organization will release a woman, Esme, who is potentially Alfred's love interest.
The script in these tapes seems to focus on a young version of Alfred that will grow up to become much like the version of the character on Gotham, as portrayed by Sean Pertwee. Perhaps this is because Gotham's co-creator and showrunner, Bruno Heller, is also the showrunner for Pennyworth. Danny Cannon, who worked as a writer and executive producer on Gotham, is also joining Pennyworth in those same roles. However, this series has nothing to do with the Fox TV show and Pertwee is not involved in any way, regardless of how much it seems that Brittney is channeling the older actor in his audition tapes.
Brittney certainly seems to understand the role, given his performance in these tapes. Epix has made no official casting announcements, though, so it's still too early to determine if the series has found its Alfred yet. With Alfred's most significant achievement having everything to do with Batman, will fans want to see the character before he met Bruce Wayne? Will Batman fans sign up for another Batman-related series that doesn't have Batman in it? That all remains to be seen when Pennyworth debuts on Epix.
