“Pennyworth” may have set in motion the birth of baby Bruce Wayne — but not before his dad gets engaged to a woman that’s not Bruce’s mother.
Ben Aldridge, who plays a young Thomas Wayne in Epix’s “Batman” prequel series, just dropped a major hint about the state of his and Martha Kane’s (Emma Paetz) relationship at the beginning of Season 2 when it premieres this December… and it’s certainly not what we expected.
“I think I can say this — he comes back into Episode 1 engaged to someone else, so that’s a massive curveball,” Aldridge revealed during a New York Comic-Con virtual panel on Sunday. “It’s kind of a curveball for both of them. He didn’t expect that either. That’s where they start off, and then it all unfolds from there.”
That said, there’s still going to be “a lot of tension” and “conflicting politics” between Thomas and Martha over his new role as CIA station chief. “Even in their pleasant moments, they are literally a second away from it completely turning and ending up in a horrible argument,” he added.
Aldridge previously revealed during a DC FanDome panel in September that, in Season 2, Martha Kane will get pregnant with baby Bruce Wayne, later to become the Batman.
But don’t worry — creator Bruno Heller assured us there’s little to worry that the new fiancé character will keep Thomas and Martha apart.
“The fiancé is kind of a throw-away gag to the degree that [Thomas] goes back to his East Coast mansion in Gotham and his parents have found him a fiancé called Miffy or Muffy or that sort of — I can’t remember what her name is, actually,” Heller said.
Aldridge chimed in: “It’s Betsy Van Wick.”
“It’s very clear to us, and Martha, that in that area alone, Thomas Wayne is a bit of a lamb and easily lead,” Heller continued. “He was essentially pressured into doing the conventional thing. To that degree, what Martha offers — as much as they’re in conflict all the time — what she offers him is a whole life of unconventional freedom and liberation from the constrictions of the Wayne legacy. And the fiancé back in Gotham is definitely part of that whole world that he kind of knows he has to escape from at some point.”
The last time we saw Thomas Wayne at the end of Season 1, he was bleeding out from a gunshot wound on Martha’s couch. We already know that he’s going to survive, of course, and go on to father the Caped Crusader.
“Pennyworth” Season 2 premieres Sunday, Dec. 13 at 9 p.m. ET on Epix. The first four episodes will air weekly until the midseason finale on Jan. 3, 2021, with the last six episodes of the season set to air later in 2021.
Watch the “Pennyworth” Comic-Con virtual panel above.