In Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Jeremy Irons’ Alfred Pennyworth is pretty much the only character who sees through Bruce Wayne’s bullshit. He’ll look after the Batcave while Ben Affleck’s Wayne is killing criminals by blowing up their cars or branding them so they’ll be killed in prison, but when the cowl comes off, Irons’ Alfred isn’t afraid to call his boss out on his hypocritical attitudes toward violence—sort of. He doesn’t really have an issue with the array of machine guns on the Batwing or anything like that, but at least he tries.
Apparently, though, Irons himself is just as happy to call out bullshit as his character is. Buried in a recent interview with The Daily Mail, Irons admitted that Batman V Superman was “overstuffed” and that it deserved the brutal response it got from critics. An established actor like Irons refusing to toe the party line isn’t an especially novel concept (just ask Ian McShane about being on Game Of Thrones), but Irons is still supposed to reprise his role as Alfred in Zack Snyder’s upcoming Justice League movies. That makes it a little surprising that he’s so open with his admission that the movie wasn’t very good.
However, Irons is still interested in keeping his job, so he does say that “the next one will be simpler” and that “the script is certainly a lot smaller.” He’s presumably referring to Justice League there, and while it’s good that he’s more optimistic about the sequel, the fact that a movie about the entire Justice League will somehow be “simpler” than a movie about just Batman and Superman (plus Wonder Woman) is fairly shocking. It can’t have fewer characters, so will the characters speak less than they already did? Will it have fewer nonsensical dream sequences? Will only one character have a mother named Martha?
The first of Snyder’s two Justice League movies is set to be in theaters in November of next year.