Season 2 of Gotham was a complete flip on Season 1, ramping up the bonkers comic book storytelling with lasting and memorable villains, all while keeping things just as gritty and darkly comedic. And so when Season 3 arrives later this year, we can bet that Gotham City will be in even more dire straits as its underworld continues to swell with personalities most foul. Perhaps the most foul of the bunch will be the Penguin's, if actor Robin Lord Taylor is to be believed. Here's how he explained how the character will change for the future. (As translated from Italian via Google.)
Oswald will try to be the most powerful man he can be. He learned so much in Season 2. Now he has the means and knowledge, he knows what it is to be the king of Gotham and how difficult it is. On the death of his mother, Nygma told him, 'You're free to do whatever you want now To love someone is to be weak, vulnerable.' Now he can be as ruthless as he wants. I think he will take that advice.
Remember when he was merely Oswald Cobblepot, umbrella goon for Fish Mooney? Penguin has come a long way in just two years, and Season 2 dealt him several blows that justify his claims that the villain will get even more ruthless as times goes on. He dealt with the death of his mother Gertrud at the hands of Theo and Tabitha Galavan, he got arrested and became one of Hugo Strange's lab rats, and then met his long lost father Elijah before witnessing his death. When Penguin realized Elijah's other family was responsible for his death, something inside him snapped and you might recall he made Grace eat her own children for dinner before stabbing her to death. (I mean, that's what he told her, anyway.) He took down Galavan once more as Azrael, thanks to Butch's RPG launcher, and then tried to kill Hugo Strange, but found Fish Mooney instead.
So Penguin was obviously already heading into very dark territories when Season 2 was closing out, now fully embracing Ed Nygma's advice about love being a weakness. With no parents and a henchman whose brain has been completely warped, Penguin doesn't have much of a reason to keep any love around in his heart anymore. I assume there will be someone for him to get romantic with at some point coming up, but that can wait until after he is done paving a vengeful path all throughout Gotham City's dark alleyways.
In case anyone had thoughts otherwise, I'm absolutely down with Penguin upping the ante on forced cannibalism and his other late-season atrocities. There is no better Cobblepot than one completely confident in his own intentions.
Robin Lord Taylor shared this update with PureBreak recently, where Riddler actor Cory Michael Smith shared that he and Taylor will have "many scenes together" in Season 3, and that he's interested to see how they mesh in their most current forms. And there are plenty of other villains that could join them, such as a return of Jerome/Joker, or the possible emergence of Bane, or the definite emergence of all the others. But no matter how many villains arrive in Gotham City in Season 3, they should be fully aware that the Penguin is not in the habit of fucking around these days, and anyone who crosses his path is due to get exploded in public.
Gotham will return to Fox for Season 3 this fall. But you can find everything hitting primetime this summer with our handy TV premiere schedule.
