Unfortunately for fans dying for Bruce Wayne's origin story to continue indefinitely on Fox, Gotham will come to an end after the finale of the upcoming fifth season. The good news is that the early cancellation means Gotham can pull out all the stops and get really wild for its final batch of episodes, and in true Gotham style, that means bringing out the big villains. Now, Shane West has joined the cast as a villain, and all signs point toward him playing a key comics villain known King Snake.
Shane West has been cast as a character by the name of Eduardo Dorrance. Eduardo will arrive in Gotham City with a team of elite soldiers, seemingly intending to help pull the city out of its state of no-man's-land lawlessness. He'll have a friend to vouch for him in Gotham, as he's an old army buddy of Jim Gordon. Despite the fact that they lost touch in the years since leaving the army, Jim will accept Dorrance and his soldiers' help... until he comes to realize that Dorrance isn't the man he thought. Jim will discover Dorrance's intentions are darker than he could have ever imagined, even touching on evil. Ouch for Jim, awesome for viewers!
Now, nowhere in the official description of Shane West's character (courtesy of Deadline) is there an explicit reference to somebody named "King Snake," but DC Comics fans will connect a character named "Eduardo Dorrance" to a comic counterpart with almost exactly the same name. Sir Edmund Dorrance was a member of the British Army's Royal Artillery and later became a dangerous mercenary. He eventually took on the "King Snake" title as a villain, although not without fathering a child that would go up to become the back- and Bat-breaking Bane. Surely Gotham wouldn't cast Shane West as a character named Eduardo Dorrance without turning him into King Snake!
Shane West's casting comes not too long after rumors of King Snake's introduction began to circulate, as did rumors of Bane himself popping up. The eighth episode of Season 5 is reportedly titled "I Am Bane," which obviously seems to point toward Bane turning up, perhaps seizing his destiny as the young Scarecrow did on Gotham.
That said, Shane West is only 40 years old. He might be a bit young to play Bane's father if Bane is old enough to begin his villainous journey, especially since West is on board in a recurring capacity. Isn't it possible that Gotham is putting an especially Gotham-y twist on Bane and revealing that Eduardo Dorrance is Bane? It wouldn't be the weirdest thing Gotham has ever done, and Bruce would be wise to keep on fortifying his Batcave. If Gotham can use Cameron Monaghan to play two Joker-esque roles without confirming that either identity actually is the Joker, what can't Gotham do?
Whether Eduardo is Bane or King Snake or some amalgamation of both, he's just one more villain who will menace the good guys in no man's land when the fifth and final season kicks off next year, as it sadly will not be back as part of the fall TV lineup unlike many other DC TV shows.
