Tahmoh Penikett Joins Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, But Who Is He Playing?

These past couple of days (And even hours) have been pretty crazy for DC Comic films. Just hours ago a rumor had broke the actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, Looper, The Dark Knight Rises) was set to return as the new Batman for a Justice League film, only for the rumor to be debunked by JGL's reps just a few hours later. There is also Man of Steel director Zack Snyder's seemingly confirmation the his Superman will be part of an expanded universe of characters, similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that will be connected to WB's Justice League film. And amongst all these rumors a new actor has joined Man of Steel, but who is he playing? Could it be Batman himself?

Well lets start of with the JGL/Batman rumor and sort of work our way to how the Penikett casting fits in with this. Earlier today Hitfix.com has broke news that Levitt was already in negotiations with WB to join Justice League as the new Batman, as well as an appearance in Man of Steel. Now for those who haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises yet, beware because there are SPOILERS ahead. Okay so as we all know Levitt played a character known as John Blake in TDKR, a version of Robin from the Batman comics, and at the end of the film we saw him enter the Batcave under Bruce Wayne's wishes. Now Nolan has time and time again stated this was the last film in the series, and Levitt himself had said that this was the conclusion and he had no plans to return to the role. But ultimately it's WB's decision as to whether they want to continue the Blake character as their new Batman, and in that case connect Man of Steel and Nolan's Batman series to their Justice League film. The rumor had also said one other actor was set to return to keep the continuity from the previous films, that speculators believed to be Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon. Now while Levitt's reps are saying this isn't true, there is always still a chance that they are trying to turn the media in the other direction, but there is really a small chance of this being true at this point.

Now to Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse), he was just recently confirmed to have joined the Man of Steel cast, which he has announced via his Twitter. IMDB has Penikett listed as a character named Henry Ackerdson, a name very similar to Henry Ackerson, a name used by Superman's enemy Metallo in the animated film Justice League: Doom. Now IMDB isn't exactly the most trust worthy source, and it would be odd that the character would be going by the name Henry Ackerdson as opposed to his real name John Corben. For those who don't know, Metallo is a Superman villain very similar to Terminator, and he's basically an experiment of the military who was turned into an android that runs on kryptonite. Now since the military has been said to have a heavy involvement in Man of Steel, Metallo doesn't seem a far fetched villain to make an appearance. But that really doesn't confirm that Penikett is the one that will be playing the role, and when asked if he was playing Ackerdson on Twitter he refused to confirm or deny that that was the role he was playing.

Now the only other role that Penikett has been rumored to be portraying in the film in none other than Bruce Wayne/Batman himself. The rumor comes off a bit more realistic than the Levitt/Blake/Batman rumor, considering that WB has announced they want a full on Batman 'reboot' which sounds like they want to bring the character back to square one, with not connection to the previous Nolan films. Penikett's casting confirmation comes in pretty late in comparison to the other cast members, which further supports the idea that Batman will be making an appearance in Man of Steel to emphasis on the expanded universe Man of Steel is set to start. But any word of Penikett actually playing Batman is strictly rumor, although he does seem to be a good fit for the part if I say so myself.

Here is Zack Snyder's apparent confirmation of a plan for a DC expanded universe that connects Man of Steel to Justice League:

“I don’t know how ‘Justice League’ is going to be handled. Honestly, I don’t… But ‘The Man of Steel’ exists, and Superman is in it. I don’t know how you’d move forward without acknowledging that.”

And when asked to go a little more in detail about Man of Steel's Justice League connection Snyder said:

“Um, how can I answer that?… I can’t really say anything to that, because that’s a big spoiler. I will say, yeah, they trust me to keep them on course.”

So it does sound like Snyder does have a sort of plan to incorporate hints to this universe in Man of Steel, and if they are spoilers then they may just be bigger then hints (Which would mean of course appearances).

What do you guys think of Penikett as Metallo or possibly Batman? How would you feel if JGL was our next Batman?