J.K. Simmons will be crossing over to another comic book universe to star as Commissioner James Gordon in the Justice League movies.
The casting of the Oscar-winner in the role was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter and was also confirmed by TheWrap.
Simmons follows in the footsteps of Gary Oldman, who gave a great performance as Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies. Gordon is also the main character of Fox’s Batman prequel series Gotham, where Ben McKenzie stars as a younger version of the character.
Filming on Justice League is expected to start on April 11, just over two weeks after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters on March 25. The first draft was written by Chris Terrio (Argo) and will be told in two movies. The first part opens in November 2017.
With Simmons picking this role, it means that he won’t be able to play J. Jonah Jameson in the new Spider-Man film. He played that role in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies and some hoped he might take that role again. He even suggested that he could come back.
Simmons won an Oscar for his supporting part in Whiplash. Among his next films is The Accountant, which stars the new Batman actor Ben Affleck.