'Dawn of Justice' Spoilers: Is Jeremy Irons Batman's Butler? Superman Sequel Runtime Revealed

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice will be on theaters in late March, as part of this huge year for superhero movies, which includes another DC Comics title, Suicide Squad. Months before the film's release, its runtime has been revealed, and it's actually longer than Man of Steel -- and in the latest spoilers, it turns out Jeremy Irons' Alfred Pennyworth isn't Bruce Wayne's butler.

In the latest Dawn of Justice revelations, Variety reports that the runtime for the major DC Comics event will be pretty long, with a 2 hours and 31 minutes runtime, which means it's three minutes longer than predecessor Man of Steel and almost an hour longer than this month's surprise hit superhero film Deadpool.

Still, when thinking about the screentime, it makes  sense in the world that the Batman v. Superman film has such a long runtime. Since Clark Kent/Superman (Henry Cavill) was already introduced in the former film and Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) should need no introduction, the new film, as a first setting for the Justice League, does add a few key superheroes from the DC Universe.

Besides Batman and Superman, audiences will get their first glimpse of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in this year's film, even before the Amazon princess' stand-alone film in 2017. Other characters being introduced include Jason Momoa as Aquaman and possibly Ezra Miller as The Flash and Jena Malone as Batgirl, so Zack Snyder's sequel probably needs to be quite long.

According to We Got This Covered, that's not the only news from the Dawn of Justice front right now: it turns out that, in the new film, Alfred, who's been portrayed as Bruce Wayne's longtime butler and guardian, changes roles.

In the new film's origin story, Alfred (played by Oscar-winning actor Irons) was Thomas (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Martha Wayne's (Lauren Cohan) bodyguard at the time of their deaths, when he was chosen to guard the heir who would later become the Batman.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice reaches US theaters on March 25.