Gotham show runner Bruno Heller teases that The Joker will appear on the show but not in his signature face paint with a purple and green outfit like you might expect….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
One of the most anticipated shows of the fall is FOX’s new Batman prequel ‘Gotham’, which follows a young detective named Jim Gordon as he tries to clean up the streets long before the Caped Crusader was the one doing the dirty work.
The show has already cast a huge list of notable characters from the Batman universe including Ben McKenzie in the title role playing Gordon, veteran actor Donal Logue playing his partner Harvey Bullock as well as a slew of infamous villains from the rogue’s gallery.
The Penguin seems to be a featured character coming up in the Gotham underground crime scene during the first season of ‘Gotham’ and others such as Catwoman, The Riddler and Poison Ivy have already been teased in numerous trailers and photoshoots promoting the upcoming season.
One very notable name missing from the mix, however, is the greatest Batman villain of all time — The Joker. Now the clown prince of crime hasn’t been completely left out of the ‘Gotham’ promotional material as noted during a couple of the trailers where a Joker playing card has been featured in very short, quick clips.
Still, casting and having The Joker appear in ‘Gotham’ will certainly be a seminal moment for the freshman series, although don’t expect him to show up dressed in his usual purple and green with makeup on the first day he appears on the show. It seems show runner Bruno Heller and the powers that be at ‘Gotham’ want to build The Joker slowly and when he makes his first actual appearance, it will be a very big deal.
“The Joker doesn’t spring out fully formed in the makeup and the costume,” Heller stated when speaking to Nerdcore Movement. “You will probably get someone who could become The Joker. One of the great fun things about doing this show and being in it is there are already expectations. Normally when you write a show, you have to create expectations. Here it precedes the show by a generation.”
Part of the mystery surrounding who could become The Joker is the intrigue it builds for a freshman show like ‘Gotham’ as characters get introduced and the buzz from show to show becomes a guessing game about who could be the one. Heller also admits that bringing in The Joker early on wouldn’t be fair to the iconic nature of the character.
The Joker deserves to get a big entrance and before he arrives, ‘Gotham’ needs to stand on its own two legs first. Then someone like The Joker can begin to take form.
“We’ll be very careful because The Joker is the crown jewel of the Batman villains,” Heller said. “So we’re going to wait until we get the show up and running and we know what we’re doing. The thing with TV as opposed to movies, for a while a there you’re kind of juggling and seeing what stays in the air and what drops.
“Once we have a real sense of the show, what people are liking and what makes it work, then we’ll bring in The Joker but we’ll bring him in carefully.”
Gotham debuts on September 22 at 8pm ET/PT on FOX.
