Winston Duke Is A New Bruce Wayne In Batman Unburied
Black Panther frenemy Winston Duke is set to portray Bruce Wayne in a new star-studded Batman project, but there's a twist.
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We have no shortage of Bruce Waynes in the world. In fact, arguing which actor playing Batman is now something of a personality test akin to determining if one is a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin. While at the moment, there are already canonically three actors playing Batman (Robert Pattinson as goth Batman, Michael Keaton as veteran Batman, and Ben Affleck as can’t-wait-to-get-out-of-here Batman), we are now getting a fourth: Winston Duke. Specifically, the actor will be playing Bruce Wayne on an upcoming Spotify-exclusive podcast titled Batman Unburied. From the descriptions so far, it sounds like we will be getting a slightly different and creepier take on the Dark Knight with Winston Duke than Ben Affleck making jokes about how rich he is.
Batman Unburied will star Winston Duke as a version of Bruce Wayne that has no memory of his crime fighting alter-ego as Batman. Instead, he is working as a forensic pathologist (that’s a doctor who figures out how people died) at Gotham City Hospital, where his boss is the Chief of Medicine…Thomas Wayne (Lance Reddick)? So there is clearly something up here, as the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents is a key element of the mythos. In the midst of this, Gotham is being terrorized by a new villain called the Harvester, who seems to be collecting his victims’ organs. Meanwhile, Detective Barbara Gordon (Gina Rodriguez) enlists the aid of one Edwards Nigma, aka, the Riddler (Hasan Minhaj) to track down the killer. A talented cast of actors rounds things out, with Jonathan Rhys-Davies playing Bruce Wayne’s mysterious therapist Dr. Hunter and Jason Isaacs as Alfred Pennyworth.
Winston Duke’s first time playing Bruce Wayne will actually be a return to DC territory for David S. Goyer. The prolific screenwriter and director is responsible for the scripts of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, as well Man of Steel and Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. As such, he is a little bit of a controversial figure in comics fandom. Goyer has also been behind some notable other works, like Apple TV+’s ambitious Isaac Asimov adaptation Foundation and multiple Call of Duty games. Winston Duke, on the other hand, is best known to audiences for the other big comics franchise. He has portrayed Black Panther frenemy M’Baku since 2018, and is set to return to the MCU for the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Duke also played a lead role in Jordan Peele’s disturbingly scissor-filled horror film Us.
The Batman Unburied podcast is set to be broadcast globally on May 3, with a number of adaptations featuring translations for non-English speaking nations. It is particularly noteworthy for Winston Duke leading a cast primarily composed of people of color, an unusual thing in the world of comic book adaptations. This particular story seems to skew more towards the horror aspect of Batman mythology, as well as an uncertain reality similar to David S. Goyer’s screenplay for the cult film Dark City. Hopefully, this will be the first of a number of turns by Winston Duke as Bruce Wayne, even if they’re as creepy-sounding as this one. Or maybe, especially if they are.
