Four years ago, Gotham concluded its five-season run on Fox, with the remaining seconds of the series finale finally showing David Mazouz’s Bruce Wayne suited up as Batman. Among the actors who was around for almost the entirety of Gotham’s run was Chris Chalk, who first guest-starred in Season 1 as Lucius Fox, and then was credited as a main cast member for the other four seasons. While Chalk does miss something in particular from his time on the Batman prequel series, he also admitted while talking to CinemaBlend that Lucius was “underutilized” on Gotham.
These days, Chris Chalk can be seen starring in HBO’s Perry Mason as Paul Drake, who is dealing with some major complications early into Season 2. But after we were done going over Perry Mason, I asked Chalk about what he missed most about his time in Gotham, as well as how he felt about the way the show ended, particularly with regard to Lucius Fox’s journey. Here’s what he had to say about the first portion of my inquiry:
What I miss most is we were a very big cast and we hung out a lot. And I’m not in New York where most of them are right now, so I don’t get to see any of them very much at all, and lots of them are doing very well. But I miss the actual human beings of that show in front of and behind the camera, just like Perry Mason. Incredible crew, company, production, accounting, all the way through, they were just such well-intended people. I miss them, I miss them a lot. In fact, I just went to New York to shoot a thing, and I was at Steiner and I got to see some of my friends, and it was like, ‘We’re back, we’re back! I’m not on your show!’ And a few people from Gotham were on the show I was on, so that was rad.
It’s good to hear that Chris Chalk enjoyed the company of the people he worked with on Gotham, as there are certainly instances where people who collaborate on a TV series don’t care to spend time with each other more than necessary. Unfortunately, since Chalk doesn’t live in New York, he doesn’t get to see many of these people as much as he would like, making those reunions all the more treasured. Along with David Mazouz, Chalk’s costars on Gotham included Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma/Riddler, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean and Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle, among many others.
Conversely, in Chris Chalk’s mind, the downside of Gotham having such a large main cast is that he felt Lucius Fox didn’t get his proper due on the show. As the actor put it:
Lucius was underutilized, we can call it what it was. We can call it what it is. Lucius was underutilized; I think they did a pretty good job for having 14 series regulars on a show, which is insane. It’s absurd, it’s insane, it’s a lot of people. I think they did they did as well as they could do considering how many mouths had to get fed, and if I had my druthers, it would be The Lucius Fox Show. So obviously I’m going to say there should have been more. I’m selfish.
Chris Chalk was the first actor to play Lucius Fox in live-action following Morgan Freeman’s tenure as the character in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, and while he was given a fair amount to do in Gotham Seasons 2 and 3, his role was expanded in Season 4. But as Chalk sees it, with so many series regulars to account for, there was just no way his version of Lucius would have received enough time to shine. As least Gotham fans can take comfort knowing that like his comic book counterpart, Chalk’s Lucius will be one of Batman’s key allies in waging war on Gotham City’s criminal element.
If you missed out on seeing Chris Chalk play Lucius Fox or would like to re-experience it, Gotham can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription. That’s also how you can check out new episodes of Perry Mason, assuming you don’t tune in to HBO Mondays at 9 pm ET. If your TV interests lie elsewhere, find something to your liking with the 2023 TV schedule.
