Within Gotham's exponentially warped version of the Batman mythos, we have seen many memorable reimaginings of the comic books' greatest characters and situations. Arguably the most captivating of them all has been Jerome Valeska, the deadly and uncentered villain brilliantly portrayed by Cameron Monaghan. While Jerome isn't technically Gotham's Joker, he's been set up as the Clown Prince of Prototypes, and the actor got some big Twitter love from another animated actor quite familiar with the Joker persona, Mark Hamill. Check it out!
First, let's appreciate the fact that, on any given Thursday evening during Gotham's fourth season, we might have all been simultaneously doing the same thing as Mark Hamill by watching a Gotham episode. Even if he doesn't watch until Friday afternoons on Hulu or something, we can still pretend.
Next, let's appreciate that Mark Hamill specifically used the "Joker" nomenclature to refer to Cameron Monaghan's Jerome in the tweet above. It's certainly plausible-going-on-probable that Hamill isn't caught up on newsy Gotham tidbits, so he might not have seen that star David Mazouz confirmed Jerome and the Joker are mutually exclusive lunatics. Granted, no one on Gotham has ever made a definitive statement about Jerome being The Joker proper, but it was a presumed inevitability by many. And Mark Hamill is obviously in that crowd.
At this point, Gotham fans are used to the Jerome name, which might make things easier once The Joker is introduced, since there won't be much room for mix-ups there. Of course, if the man responsible for the most iconic Joker voice in history thinks that Jerome actually is Mistah J, then we're certainly not going to stop him.
Like a good fan, Mark Hamill is sticking to his (big orange prank) guns when it comes to Cameron Monaghan's work on Gotham. Here's what he said about the actor following Jerome's shocking Season 2 arc, in which he was temporarily killed off by Theo Galavan.
We certainly did get more from Gotham's Jerome following that "death," with the cackling criminal getting resurrected, all in the midst of getting his face sliced off and then stapled back on, only to have it punched off again. Teased in the Season 4 midseason finale, he'll return in "Pieces of a Broken Mirror," once again as an influential agent within Arkham, only now with his sights on the newly imprisoned Oswald, and we can expect to see them teaming up in the future.
With new versions of old villains in tow, Gotham Season 4 will return to Fox on Thursday, March 1, at 8:00 p.m. ET. And we bet Mark Hamill will be watching. To see when other shows are debuting and returning in the near future, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
