J.K. Simmons is on the verge of returning to the DCEU.
Per Deadline, the Oscar-winning actor is in talks to reprise his role as Commissioner Gordon in the upcoming standalone Batgirl movie. Simmons previously played Gordon in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, opposite Ben Affleck. If he does sign on, he’ll act opposite In The Heights star Leslie Grace, who was just cast as the titular superhero. If the film adheres to Batgirl’s most well-known origin story, then Simmons will technically play Grace’s father in the film.
Batgirl is being written by Birds of Prey and The Flash writer Christina Hodson, and directed by Bad Boys for Life filmmaking duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Plot details are currently under wraps, meaning it’s unclear if it will tie into Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson in the titular role. Batgirl is currently scheduled to arrive on HBO Max sometime in 2022.
Simmons’ interest in the role hints at his comfort with comic book material. Remember, he’s set to reprise his role as the surly newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: No Way Home later this year. While he originally played the character in Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire, his new take on the MCU version of the character debuted in the post-credit sequence for Spider-Man: Far From Home.
