Gotham is set to return for its fifth and final season in the not-too-distant future, and all signs point toward the showing pulling out all the stops to deliver a wild ride for the last batch of episodes. The Season 4 cliffhanger that left Gotham City as a no man's land means some degree of chaos in Season 5, and one member of the cast has now revealed that Batman himself will appear. Cameron Monaghan, a.k.a. the Valeksa brothers, shared this on Twitter:
Kudos to Cameron Monaghan for not bothering to ambiguously tease a possible appearance from Batman! Of course, this technically isn't the first time a member of the Gotham cast has indicated that Bruce Wayne will go full Dark Knight before the final credits role. Back in 2015, star Ben McKenzie stated that "the last frame of the last shot of the last scene of the last episode" will see Bruce donning the black cape to become Batman.
Plans for the series may have changed since 2015, but Cameron Monaghan's response to a fan question on Twitter points to Bruce becoming Batman in Season 5 some way or other. Bruce has actually been getting closer to the cape and the cowl in the last couple of seasons in some dramatic ways. For one, Season 4 debuted Bruce's first Batmobile, and it was just about as awesome as anybody could expect for the earliest iteration of the iconic vehicle.
The earliest version of the Bat Signal appeared in Season 4 as well, although it was distinctly lacking the bat. Throw in how much Bruce has grown (physically and mentally), developed his fighting skills, and that creepy vision from last season that gave us our first look at Batman, and it makes sense that the show will deliver the Caped Crusader by the end of Season 5. Maybe this is why the Bat-Cave is getting those updates.
My big question at this point is whether Gotham will deliver a very early version of Batman, since even after the upcoming time jump, Bruce will still be a teenager, or if Gotham will put Bruce in the cowl after a time jump of many years. Who knows? Maybe if there's a big enough jump forward, the final shot of the series featuring Bruce as Batman could also feature a Robin. Surely those Graysons got to procreating sometime after their happy ending back in Season 1!
Whether or not Bruce is in a Bat suit early in Season 5, it's probably safe to say that Gordon and the remnants of the GCPD will need all the help they can get. Bane himself will debut in the final season, among many other villains. I'm still curious to learn if the creepy-looking Man-Bat will somehow inspire Bruce to go with bats for adopting his vigilante persona.
Gotham will premiere its fifth and final season on Thursday, January 3 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
