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Photo: Colin Hutton/HBO Max

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‘Pennyworth: The Origins of Batman’s Butler’ goes to the sexy, psychedelic 70s and even Gotham: Jack Bannon and Ben Aldridge on season 3

The Pennyworth stars dish on the new season in a colorful world with superheroes and supervillains.

Most comic readers know Alfred as the butler of Bruce Wayne and the man who raised Batman. There have been plenty of versions on both the big and small screen. What sets Pennyworth apart is that it explores the character before he made the trek across the pond for a new life in the United States. He was just a young former British SAS officer trying to start his own business in England but gets entangled into some high-stakes drama.

The show returns for its third season under some new circumstances. It made the jump from cable to streaming landing on HBO Max. There is even a name change to Pennyworth: The Origins of Batman’s Butler to emphasize who the titular character is. In addition, with a time jump of five years from when we last left off, they even enter a new era.

We spoke with series stars Jack Bannon, who plays Alfred Pennyworth, and Ben Aldridge, who plays Thomas Wayne. They discuss their characters and what to expect in the new season including the sexy 70s psychedelic world, the genesis of superheroes and supervillains, and a return to Gotham.

AIPT: Both Alfie and Thomas have been through a lot over the past two seasons of Pennyworth. How would you describe your characters’ evolution from when we first met them in the series premiere to where they are now?

Jack Bannon: Well, I think that Alfred really has gone from a boy to a man. When we first met him, he was fresh out of the army and had all these delusions of grandeur that he would be off working for himself. Trying to get stuff off the ground. I think actually he’s kind of achieved what he set out to at the very beginning.

I think season two got all political, didn’t it? We had the war and all of that stuff which was good fun and which side of good and evil are you going to come out on. Then in the next season three, we meet him in this explosive, colorful, kind of sexy 70s psychedelic world with mind control drugs and all sorts of mad stuff going on. He’s got his flares on. He’s loving life. He’s running Pennyworth Security. Working with Bet and Dave Boy, which is great fun. He’s enjoying himself, but how long that will last, we are yet to find out.

Ben Aldridge: Yeah, I think he [Thomas] evolves quite a bit. In season one, he’s entry level CIA getting to grips with this covert world. Isn’t quite sure of the moral implications of all of it and that’s a big struggle for him. In season two, he’s handed much more responsibility and more involvement with the CIA than he even wanted and has to action various things that are going to cost people’s lives. So, that’s again this kind of wrestling match that he has with himself. Obviously at the end of season two he’s becoming really wary with that and the level of responsibility and involvement that he has with these dark matters.

So, season three sees him in this five-year time jump into the 70s. The daughter they just had at the end of season two is now five years old. He’s got family responsibilities. He’s transitioned into becoming a pediatrician, which is kind of more aligned to the do-gooder we see him as in the comics, in the canon. That kind of philanthropic edge to him he has. It’s not an edge, it’s something. A quality <laughing>.

He’s on the straight and narrow and pretty determined to lead a clean and good life. But it doesn’t seem to last for long and trouble is afoot with Martha and also with Patrick Wayne, his dad who arrives on the scene and tries to reembroil him into those darker matters.

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Photo: Colin Hutton/HBO Max

AIPT: Just a follow-up for Jack. Alfie has had a lot of traumas on the series, and that doesn’t even include his experiences in the SAS. What do you think keeps him going considering all he’s endured?

Bannon: That’s a good question.

Aldridge: Money! <Laughing>

Bannon: Money drives him. Yes. I think doing the right thing keeps him going. If doing the right thing earns him some money, that helps. He’s been through an awful lot and that’s why he’s constantly saying, “I want to get on the straight and narrow. I want to be my own man. I work for myself”, which is an interesting notion given that he goes on to be a servant. A butler later on in life. He’s just trying to keep his head down. Family, morally doing the right thing, and Dave Boy, all those things kind of keep him going.

AIPT: For most of Pennyworth so far, Alfie and Thomas’s relationship has been a little bit one of convenience. It was pretty much they would meet when one wanted something from the other. Sometimes what they were after aligned and they would work together. What can we expect from their dynamic in season three? I just ask because your series got a name change, and it reminds you that at one point Alfred becomes employed by Thomas Wayne, and they’re close enough for him to become his butler.

Aldridge: Yeah, it’s an interesting one. The power dynamics have always been interesting because Thomas has always needed Alfred more than Alfred needs Thomas. Even though Alfred needs the job opportunities, Thomas actually goes to him a lot with either missions or involves him in things. That continues into season three. Alfred comes more to their rescue.

There are some massive stakes for them in which I think it develops a bit more personally. Now Thomas isn’t trying to get him involved in CIA issues. He’s now trying to involve him in life of death situations or the Waynes. I think if that develops maybe their connection develops as well. I’m really curious for future seasons to see how it does shift that he becomes an employee of theirs or perhaps that’s all a ruse. A cover up for something different. I’m not sure.

Bannon: It’s funny. A lot of the indication to begin with in season one was that it would be this buddy thing and it’s not really been that. It’s hilarious, Ben’s always saying, “Can I stop asking Alfred if he’s my friend?”

Aldridge: Yeah! Every scene I’m like, “But we’re friends? As a friend, what would you advise me?” It’s like, he’s not your friend yet.

Bannon: He comes a bit strong, Thomas. Alfred is kind of stand offish. I think he respects him. That has to be the case for the genesis of this relationship that we know eventually forms. He’s kind of wary of him. I described it in season one as two tigers circling each other, sizing each other up. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes. Mrs. Pennyworth is working for the Waynes.

Aldridge: I was going to say that was quite a cool development that Mrs. Pennyworth is working for them. Does that lead to him working for them? I don’t know.

Bannon: Mom’s off sick so Alfred fills in <laughing>.

pennyworth richard dillane
Photo: Colin Hutton/HBO Max

AIPT: Ben touched upon it earlier, that we’re introduced to Patrick Wayne. Can you discuss his impact on this new season?

Aldridge: Yeah, he really comes in studs up. Certainly, for Thomas, if Patrick didn’t arrive on the scene, he would have stuck to the straight and narrow and the family path that he’s on. But he has a loyalty and a respect for his father even though they’ve got a difficult relationship. We find out the history of Thomas and Patrick, which I think is a tease that Bruno [Heller] has done, which is also an Easter egg for the family dynamic that is inherited by Thomas and Bruce in the comic books. This kind of coldness. This detached fatherly figure.

Patrick really sets the new world alight with his involvement in the underworld of what’s happening in London with this mind control drug. I would say he’s the accidental glue or the touch paper that sets the explosion off and how all the characters interconnect in the end is because of Patrick’s dark deeds. He’s a pretty key character in the season.

AIPT: So far, Pennyworth has been a sort of spy action thriller. However, it does take place in its own area of the DC Comic Universe so it was only a matter of time until superpowered people became involved. We caught a glimpse of it at the end of season two with Captain Gully and now it seems it will be a significant plot point. How does the inclusion of these so called PWEs affect the world of Pennyworth?

Bannon: I think it really ramps it up. There’s a sort of underworld of these PWEs. They’re on the outside of society. They’re not hugely accepted and people are wary of them because they’re different like people are of anyone that is different in this world. It was great fun coming into season three. The Gully Troy thing came as a major surprise to everybody, most of all James Purefoy, who plays Captain Troy when they suddenly had him in a crazy suit shooting gray things out of his arms. He was a very good sport.

It has been fantastic to watch. Even Bruno’s mind coming up with what could you enhance. People’s eyes? People’s limbs? I think the art department had a lot of fun making bionic arms and all sorts of things like that.

AIPT: I guess I’ll leave you all on this. What are you most excited for fans to see in the upcoming season of Pennyworth?

Aldridge: I’m most excited because there is a moment that takes place in Gotham. We’re on the streets of Gotham for a little bit, which I think is a cool thing for the fans. We were able to shoot that on the set of The Batman film that was made also at Warner Bros. There’s this quite iconic moment in the series.

Bannon: Ooh. You’re calling that an iconic moment?

Aldridge: Yes, it is an iconic moment on an iconic set as well. I’m excited for that.

Bannon: Ben’s iconic moment.

Aldridge: And I’m an icon.

Bannon: It is an iconic moment and it is very good. Generally, the new world. The 70s. The psychedelic colors. Literally psychedelics, the mind control drugs. Really, the genesis of these superheroes and supervillains and people with enhancements and how that fight between good and evil really starts.  

The first three episodes from season three of Pennyworth: The Origins of Batman’s Butler dropped today on HBO Max. New episodes are released every Thursday.

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