One of the more frustrating aspects of Fox’s Gotham is also one of its more intriguing, as showrunner Bruno Heller has yet to fully commit to how the show is handling that most beloved DC villain of all, The Joker. While fans thought that Cameron Monaghan’s previously seen Jerome was the heir to The Joker’s throne, it appears Heller has more cards up his sleeves, and he has confirmed that the beginning of Season 2 will definitely focus on how the Clown Prince of Crime came to be. High fives with hand buzzers!
Something of a trade-off here is that Gotham fans will be waiting until next season to see any further references to the Joker. Here’s how Heller put it to ComicBook.com.
You’re not going to see teases of The Joker before the end of the season, because the beginning of Season 2 is a big Joker-oriented, or ‘how The Joker came to be’ kind of story. The beginning of Season 2 is the very earliest origins of how The Joker came to be.
This version of The Joker, which Heller calls “pre-embryonic,” could still very well be the circus-bound Jerome character whom we saw confess to killing his own mother earlier this season. He had the sinister smile, the dastardly laugh, and a situation maniacal enough to match up with The Joker’s elusive backstory. It has already been confirmed that Monaghan would be returning for Season 2 in some capacity, although even the actor didn’t seem to be aware of how Jerome’s story would be handled.
The prospect of giving the iconic villain a concrete origin tale is a task unto itself, since the comics and films have kept it pretty fluid over the years, so it makes perfect sense that Heller is keeping things fairly secretive at this point. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if any other toothy actors are hired by the time production begins for next season. And even that might be a red herring, because why wouldn’t it be?
We know that someone, presumably Fish Mooney, will get killed off in the next few episodes. And it was announced just earlier that Edward Nygma will face an internal battle by the season finale that will put him on a path to becoming The Riddler. Plus, Season 2 is bringing Clayface and The Mad Hatter to audiences, so it’s only right that the next batch of episodes will kick off with the Ace of Knaves. Hopefully if Heller and his writers bypass Jerome for another Joker, it will be equally as impressive.
Gotham, which took a pretty big dip in ratings when it returned last week from another hiatus, is currently telling the story of the serial killer The Ogre, continuing with tonight’s episode “Under the Knife.”
