WARNING: Spoilers for Pennyworth season 3Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler season 3 just concluded its HBO Max run this week, leaving viewers in a chaotic yet festive mood. The infamous future butler Alfred (Jack Bannon) tied the knot with his on-and-off girlfriend Sandra in between saving PWEs (People With Enhancements) from experimentation and the entirety of London from a drug-induced mental health crisis, although a sudden airstrike may render the previous festivities null. Meanwhile, Martha (Emma Paetz) and Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge) manage to patch up their rocky marriage after a season of lies and half-truths, starting over as a family.
Pennyworth season 3 underwent several changes when it moved to HBO Max, including both a name change and a five-year time jump. The latter is the most important, given that it gave Martha and Thomas a daughter to take care of and added tension to the dangerous situations they often find themselves in. While “Highland Wedding” may have given them a moment’s respite before racketing up the tension once more, viewers knew that madness will descend once more when the show returns. And while the Waynes can be trusted to handle themselves with Alfie by their side, DC Comics fans patiently await Bruce’s eventual arrival.
Screen Rant spoke to Paetz about how the Wayne family is changed by the introduction of their daughter Sam in Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler season 3, which scene was the toughest for her to film, and what she hopes to see for Martha in the future.
Emma Paetz Breaks Down Pennyworth Season 3
Screen Rant: Between the time jump and move to HBO Max, not to mention the title change, how different of an experience was Pennyworth season 3 for you?
Emma Paetz: Probably the main difference from my experience was filming with a kid for so many of my scenes. That was just a whole new energy, which I knew it would be, but I thought it was really interesting. Pennyworth is not really a kids’ show [laughs], so to have Jayda [Eyles, who plays Sam] in the middle of that was really nice. And season 3 is a really fun time for that new energy to be injected into it, so that was the biggest difference for me.
How does Martha balance her family life with the spy life, which really comes to a head in the last few episodes with her child being kidnapped? And how do you compartmentalize on set?
Emma Paetz: With Jada on set, she was just really hilarious. And Ben Aldridge, who plays Thomas, is really good with kids. They were quite funny together, so that just took care of itself. She was a very natural addition to the Wayne household.
Martha, for the most part, is very good at compartmentalization. I think that’s why she’s able to lie to Thomas and convince herself that it’s not really a lie, or it’s not that bad to be doing. When Martha’s in the middle of doing something, she’s quite focused on that, although all the family stuff does start to leak into it a little in season 3. But I think she’s pretty good at keeping them separate in her mind until she gets caught out in front of Thomas, and then she can’t keep them separate anymore.
Sam is such an interesting addition to Pennyworth, and it begs the question of whether we’ll see Bruce. Not to mention that she’s not in the comics. Have you discussed this aspect of Martha and Thomas’ family life with the writers, or thought about where it might lead down the line?
Emma Paetz: They didn’t really fill in any gaps for us, in terms of Bruce not being there. I know as much as you do in that regard.
But Ben and I just had to catch ourselves up to speed in order to make sure we knew roughly what our relationship had been leading to before then. Neither Ben nor I are really into pages of backstory, so I think it was more about getting a scene and talking about how the last five years played into it, and how their history is coming out in that particular moment.
You don’t even need that much backstory, because Martha and Thomas usually exist to just die in the comics. That being said, do you ever look to other iterations of Batman for inspiration, or do you stay focused on the Pennyworth page?
Emma Paetz: I feel like she’s just not in the comics, other than Flashpoint, which is a very different story. I mean, it’d be cool to do Flashpoint Martha, but I don’t think that’s what we’re doing. Initially, I had gone through a lot of the comics. But as you say, she does just exist to be a mother who is then killed, and what’s satisfying about playing her is getting to find the reality of this person. Ben and I have both felt that we have quite a lot of freedom with that, because you don’t know too much about them in the comics.
I spoke to Simon Manyonda last week about the previous episode, and I love how Martha’s the one leading the charge to rescue him in the finale. Can you talk about the relationship between Martha and Lucius, and what makes them special?
Emma Paetz: Yeah, they’ve got quite a funny little relationship, don’t they? I really liked doing those scenes and filming with Simon. He’s kind of my neighbor, so I always see him around, and those all felt quite natural. Simon came in season 2, and Lucius was a really great new person to be thrust into the middle of it all. He’s so good as Lucius, and you can throw anything at him. It’s just a joy to watch how he’ll hit back.
One thing that I did not expect to happen by the end of this season was for Alfie to be getting married. How does Martha feel about the long-term viability of his relationship with Sandra?
Emma Paetz: To be honest, with everything that was going on, I don’t know how much attention she paid to whether or not it would work out long-term. It’s just kind of nice to see that ritual and ceremony in the middle of something hugely chaotic going on. I’d like to think Martha isn’t too judgmental about their relationship either way. [Laughs] I think she’s pretty easygoing.
The Wayne family goes through plenty of turmoil in the finale. How has their dynamic changed or evolved now that the season’s over, and where does it leave them in the future?
Emma Paetz: In a lot of ways, they’re the strongest they’ve ever been. I think they’re actually being very honest and open with each other in a way that they’ve never been before. They probably thought they were close and intimate, and now they realize that they actually have been keeping so much from each other.
I don’t know where we would start up with them again, but I know they’re pretty solid in their three-person unit when we leave them this season.
Looking back on season 3, what has been the hardest thing for you to do, either from an emotional or physical standpoint?
Emma Paetz: I was really nervous about the fight scene between Thomas and Martha. I was worried that I wouldn’t be good enough. I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to do extensive fight choreography since drama school, so I was nervous about that.
When we started training and stuff with the stunt people, originally it looked way different. There were a lot of wrestling moves in it. [Laughs] We ended up just condensing it all, but I would say that was probably the most challenging. I find learning choreography really hard, although I can do moves once I know them. But I’m just bad at keeping track of everything in the space, and when you learn the stunts in one room before you put them on the set, it’s actually completely different.
I really trust Ben, though, so I wasn’t scared. I was just worried that I would mess up. Also, Ben did a backflip! I was like, “Oh, okay. This is what we’re bringing to the table?”
How long was that process, from starting the choreography and working with stunts to actually filming on the day?
Emma Paetz: I think we learned the choreography a week before, but obviously it was longer for the stunt team. The stunt people are working on it way before, with production and the director in terms of what it might look like. That process begins before the actors get to it, and then we got to it about a week before and had pretty much just one rehearsal of it. On the day, though, you have it broken up into little bits so that it feels manageable.
As we hopefully go into season 4, what other sides of Martha’s life would you like to delve into?
Emma Paetz: I like when Martha gets to interact with other women. So, whenever there are any Patricia scenes, I really like that. Salóme [R. Gunnarsdóttir], who plays her, is great.
I’m up for whatever, but I’d specifically like more dialogue with other female characters. She’s never really interacted with Bet at all, other than very briefly. In the moments we had in this season, Paloma [Faith] and I had fun despite barely ever being on set together. I also like when Martha gets lighter moments where she’s a bit ridiculous or something. She’s so intense a lot of the time, so I like when she gets to loosen up.
About Pennyworth: The Origin Of Batman’s Butler
The DC origin series Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler follows Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon), a former British SAS soldier, who forms a security company in 1960s London and goes to work with young billionaire Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge) and his wife Martha (Emma Paetz), before they become Bruce Wayne’s parents. Season three of the psychological thriller begins after a five-year time jump: the civil war is over, and a cultural revolution has changed the world for better or worse – ushering in a new age of Super Heroes and Supervillains.
Check out our previous Pennyworth interview with Simon Manyonda as well.
All episodes of Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler season 3 are available to stream on HBO Max.