Pennyworth Trailer: Batman's Butler Doesn't Like Violence

[Ulquiorra]

Pennyworth's full-length trailer offers a better look at Alfred Pennyworth's steamy, action-packed origin story on the TV series. The show is executive produced by Gotham's Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, who are far from strangers to tweaking the Batman mythology in unexpected and sometimes bizarre ways. And now that seemingly every network has something comic book related in the works (even HBO's got Watchmen coming out this year), EPIX is joining the cause with a James Bond-style spy thriller where the main character just happens to be the Caped Crusader's eventual caretaker.

Endeavour and Medici's Jack Bannon stars in Pennyworth as the titular character, who's a British ex-SAS soldier trying to get a security company up and running in '60s London when he meets Bruce Wayne's father, Thomas (Ben Aldridge), and the pair go into business. The previously-released teasers have painted young Alfred as being quite the playboy and hot-head, which only goes to show where Gotham City's future protector really got his attitude and general temperament from.

The two-minute trailer is equally vibrant and full of gusto, from the snazzy '60s costumes and sets to amusing scenes of Alfred making short work of some goons in a nightclub before dropping quips and asking dancer Esme (Emma Corrin) out in the same breath. It's possible the actual show will be a good deal less energetic than the Pennyworth marketing, but Gotham was never lacking for momentum, and it stands to reason that Heller and Cannon's followup (which, to be clear, isn't strictly part of the former's continuity) won't be either. You can check out the trailer below, along with the show's poster.

Bannon and his costars are joined here by songwriter-actress Paloma Faith and Jason Flemyng (no stranger to comic book adaptations, after his roles in From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and X-Men: First Class) as the show's villains, Bet Sykes and Lord Harwood. Gotham's antagonists were as much its stars as the heroes defending Batman's city, and it looks like Pennyworth will gives its baddies similar amounts of time in the spotlight, gauging by the latest trailer.

Outside of name-dropping Thomas Wayne and Alfred being told he should take up a job as a butler (wink), the Pennyworth trailer otherwise keeps its DC Comics connections on the low-down and could even be mistaken for a regular period spy drama, had it gone under a less conspicuous title. With so many other options to choose from now thanks to DC Universe and its original series (the recently-canceled Swamp Thing included), it'll be interesting to see if DC fans tune in for a show that's so separate and independent of the larger DC canon. Then again, that might be exactly what convinces viewers to take a chance on the adventures of young Alfred in the first place.

Pennyworth premieres Sunday, July 28 @9pm on EPIX.