Fox has ordered a straight to series Batman prequel titled ‘Gotham’ that will follow Jim Gordon during his rise in the police force battling the rogue’s gallery of villains…
Fresh off the heels of the early success of ABC’s new superhero series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it appears Fox will be getting the comic book business for television as well.
The network has ordered to series a new show called Gotham that will center around a young Jim Gordon before he becomes commissioner over the Gotham City police force, and prior to his first interactions with Batman.
The show will be written and directed by The Mentalist showrunner Bruno Heller.
The series will serve as an origin story for the character of Jim Gordon as he makes his way up the police ranks while facing off against a slew of high profile criminals. While Batman will not have a role in the series, the plan is to begin introducing the Rogue’s Gallery of Batman villains during the course of the show.
No casting has been announced for the newly minted series, but it’s expected to draw a lot of interest especially given the high profile nature of the next Batman series coming to film with Man of Steel 2 re-introducing the character as portrayed by Ben Affleck. That film will come to fruition in 2015.
Gordon’s role in the Batman universe began as early as the first appearance of the character many years ago, and he has served as a confidant and friend to the Caped Crusader through every adaptation of television and film over the years.
The character of Jim Gordon was most recently portrayed by Gary Oldman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.
This will mark a major step forward for the DC Comics Universe into television because while the comic book giant has already had shows such as Smallville and Arrow air on The CW network, this will be their first push into network TV in several years while focusing on a character the magnitude of Batman.
More information on the series should be made available in the coming months as Fox begins development on Gotham.
