With the recent arrival of The Batman “The Bat and the Cat” trailer, you might be asking yourself what did Alfred lie about. It’s a sequence that comes a little after 1:38 and it seems to imply that things are a bit messed up between Bruce and his butler, which could link into everything else that takes place in the film.
The vast majority of the trailer is a feature on the relationship between Batman and Selina Kyle / Catwoman, who is played by Zoe Kravitz in the 2022 adaptation. While this is interesting enough in itself, it’s the conversation between Bruce and Alfred Pennyworth (played by Andy Serkis) that was the most exciting, pointing to the link between the Wayne family and the crime wave sweeping the city.
AdvertisementEdward Nashton / Riddler is on a rampage of death leaving his cryptic clues and calling card question marks wherever he goes, which is making life difficult for the Bat. We’ve known since the first trailer that Batman was linked to it all somehow, but with the line, “all these years, you lied to me, Alfred”, we got a pretty big hint that the connection is very personal and goes back a long time.
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What might Alfred lie about
We’ve got a couple of theories for you in terms of what did Alfred lie about, but as ever, first you need to decide whether or not you really want to know. One of the theories might actually be right, which could give away details about the plot, so if you don’t actually want to find out too much about the story before you see The Batman then now’s your chance to back out quietly and return to the shadows.
AdvertisementFor everyone else, it’s time to head down to the Bat Cave and start raking through the guano on the floor to see if we can turn over some juicy morsels of truth. That sounds a whole lot more grim than we thought it was going to, but you get the point. There’s clearly a dirty secret or two that links Batman to the Riddler and it seems like Alfred knew about it all these year.
Our theory is based on the assumption that this is more than likely a family secret, and because Bruce is so surprised by the truth it would imply that it goes back a generation. That puts his dad Thomas in the frame and from other elements in the trailer, we know that he was a philanthropist millionaire before he was killed.
AdvertisementIn the comics, he and his wife Martha died at the hands of criminals, but there are no details as of yet about who killed them. This could go on to be an important detail. If Alfred’s lie does relate to Thomas Wayne then it seems to indicate that he wasn’t as clean as he seemed to be and that the dirty secret might have led to the killing which has left Batman so tormented.
It’s possible that he had some shady dealings with the underside of Gotham city in his quest to do anything to help the less fortunate. When he discovered how bad his associates were he tried to distance himself, which resulted in him and his wife getting killed, but not before his actions contributed to the reason the Riddler is so crazed with his own style of vengeance.
This is something that has already been teased in the previous trailers with the Riddler telling Batman that he’s a part of this too, so his father could well be that part. Either he was affiliated with one of the crime families of Gotham City, or the corrupt mayor we saw in the teaser trailer or maybe even a larger group, say like the Court of Owls.
However, it’s also possible for none of this to be true, or even that the lie that Alfred Pennyworth is referring to has anything to do with the Riddler at all. That connection could lie elsewhere, because we know that Robert Pattinson’s Batman is in his second year of crime fighting, so something he has done himself in the last couple of years as vengeance incarnate is what has got Edward Nashton so riled up.
Instead, the lie could be related to Catwoman, for example. Maybe Selena Kyle is Bruce’s half sister or Alfred’s daughter and he’s been keeping it secret all these years. It’s tenuous, but the point is that the lie doesn’t necessarily have to relate to the Riddler’s murder streak live streams.
That being said, the dad theory is still the best we’ve got. You might argue that in the teaser trailer Alfred is also heard asking Batman, “why is he writing to you?”, which could imply that the lie has got nothing to do with the Riddler. Although, this could either be before Alfred works things out or he’s still maintaining the falsehood, because the truth hasn’t been discovered yet by Bruce.
Like we said above, if you have any of your own theories then hit us up with a comment on Twitter or Facebook. You can also check out our movie news section to keep tabs on the latest upcoming films, or visit the Warner Bros website at https://www.warnerbros.co.uk/.
