Entertainment Weekly magazine sat down with Gotham showrunner Bruno Heller to talk about one of the most-anticipated new TV shows of the fall season and in their discussion, the subject of the villainous character The Joker came up. As you may know, young versions of The Penguin, Catwoman, The Riddler and Poison Ivy will be introduced when Gotham debuts later this year but Heller promises that The Joker will appear on the show, too … at some point. Because The Joker is the greatest of Batman‘s Rogues Gallery of Villains (and, IMHO, the greatest comic book villain of all time), great care must be taken for his arrival on Gotham to be perfect. But he is coming … we can count on that.
Which Batman characters are you likely to introduce this season?
Obviously, the Penguin, Riddler, young Catwoman, Alfred. Possibly Harvey Dent. Poison Ivy. Um … and then there will be others, but I hate to — I’m so used to doing a police procedural, so I’m used to telling, “Next week he’s going to go there.” With this, it’s very much storytelling. So I would be remiss to tell you who will show up when. I will say we’re not going to skimp on giving people the characters they want and expect from Gotham. But when and how they’re going to show up is half the fun. Penguin is one of those guys that, as soon as you see him, you go, “Oh, that’s the Penguin.” It would be hard to disguise him as somebody else.So you might stealth introduce somebody who later becomes somebody else.
Exactly. Because we’re starting way before these villains even themselves knew they were villains. Some of them started out as good guys. So there will be a lot of that.You mentioned The Killing Joke. So you’ll bring in The Joker?
He’s the crown jewel of the Batman villains. He will be brought in with great care and a lot of thought.Some feel Heath Ledger’s performance was so iconic it would be a mistake to try to do that character again so soon.
I’ve written scenes for Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. So while that is a serious and valid note, you can’t get into doing this without going there. That was a wonderful performance and — apart from everything else — wonderful make-up. And we should try to live up to that. It will be a different character. It’s certainly going to be more Heath Ledger than Cesar Romero. But like I say, all of these people are real people with feelings and emotions and history and parents. I just build from that.
The full interview can be read HERE. I’m hopeful that Gotham will turn out to be a great show and yes, of course, they have to introduce The Joker … maybe as the cliffhanger at the end of season 1 of the show? It’s silly to think that you can’t do the Joker as a character again because of Heath Ledger‘s portrayal. Hell, we’ve already got a new Batman in Ben Affleck even tho everyone is still pretty much in love with Christian Bale‘s performance as the Dark Knight. These characters are iconic and the can find new life over and over again. I just hope they do it right. I’m excited to see how Gotham will turn out. I can’t wait for its debut this fall.
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