Andy Serkis Works Out Schedule So He Can Reprise His Role as Alfred for The Batman Part II and Make Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum

Andy Serkis has said he will be able to reprise his role as Alfred for The Batman Part II and make Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, both of which are out late 2027.

Deadline confirmed Serkis will return as Bruce Wayne’s butler in The Batman Part II, which starts shooting this summer ahead of an October 1, 2027 release date. Meanwhile, Serkis is directing and starring in Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is due out December 17, 2027.

“I’m pretty certain it’s all going to work out,” Serkis told Collider. “Yeah, we’re working on it, but I think it’s all looking good.”

Last month, Robert Pattinson, who plays Bruce Wayne / Batman in Matt Reeves’ Batman Epic Crime Saga, teased The Batman Part II’s “extraordinary” script, calling it “very, very different.”

The Batman Part II is set to launch five-and-a-half years after The Batman. In an update last year, Reeves acknowledged how long it was taking to get The Batman Part II in a position to start filming. “It’s been a journey that is taking longer than I would’ve wanted for a lot of reasons, a lot of personal reasons,” Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter. “But [the] most important reason is getting it to a place where I just felt like it was the best script we could possibly write.”

Reeves also spoke about Pattinson’s response to the script — which was mailed to him in a privacy pouch complete with coded entry (that Pattinson almost couldn’t open) to keep all of the exciting details completely under wraps.

“He’s Batman, and if he doesn’t like it, not good,” the Cloverfield director said of Pattinson’s feelings on the script. “I was super excited. I thought that he really would [like it] because the things that it does for his character, for Batman and for Bruce, have never been done before in this way. I had a feeling that he would respond in this way, but the fact that he did was incredibly encouraging.”

He added: “Obviously because of what the first movie was and what this movie is, which is so much a detective story, the idea of trying to protect the secrets of the movie is super important because it’s a mystery. It would be an extra level of heartbreak if that part of it started getting out.”

Pattinson then provided a further update, telling Deadline: “The script is extraordinary. I think it’s going to be a really, really, really special movie. And very, very different to… even from the last one. I was reading it going like, ‘Oh wow! Okay!’ It’s going to be interesting seeing it come out. It’s taking some big swings.”

The Batman Part II cast includes the aforementioned Serkis and Pattinson, as well as Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Scarlett Johansson, and Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent. Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, meanwhile, had a surprise casting announcement of its own: Viggo Mortensen will not reprise his iconic role as Aragorn.

Photo by Dave J Hogan/Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.