If Gotham were to introduce a five-headed octopus as one of its main antagonists in Season 5, fans probably wouldn't blink too hard at it, all things considered. However, lots of heads may get scratched now that Cameron Monaghan has revealed he'll be playing a character in Season 5 that isn't Jerome or Jeremiah. That's right, a THIRD character! Here's what the actor had to say when asked which Valeska brother was more fun to play.
They're both a complete joy. I've had a lot of fun with Jeremiah in season 5. Because Jeremiah and Jerome were on screen at the same time in Season 4, I had to take make them extremely distinct. . . . But the character I most enjoyed playing is the one in the final episode that we haven't seen yet.
Break out your detective hats, people. Then throw them away, because I doubt it will take all that long to figure out where Gotham is heading with Cameron Monghan.
If Gotham's Jeremiah arc is going where everyone assumes it is, Cameron Monaghan might just start dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight for the Season 5 finale. Meaning, of course, that The Joker may officially arrive in Gotham City after all this waiting and hoping and hollering.
To be expected, Cameron Monaghan can't just come right out and say who or what it is that he'll be portraying for Gotham's final episode, but he did confirm that fans don't need to worry about crossing paths with any additional hidden-until-now lookalike siblings. Here's how he put it to EW.
Not triplets! No secret other twin. we're seeing a very linear story arc with Jeremiah. Our point A is where we left off last season and our point B is a huge jump and I can't wait for people to see it.
Jeremiah didn't show up in Gotham's Season 5 premiere, which was a huge bummer, but his second-tier anarchist Ecco left a sign for Jim Gordon proving the cackling maniac is absolutely still within Gotham City, waiting for the ideal moment to spring forth anew. But without him around to possibly give away clues through dialogue, it's hard to know where things are heading.
The extended Season 5 trailer, as well as the episode titles, unearthed a pretty gigantic hint, however. One episode will be titled "Ace Chemicals," which is the iconic business where Bruce and Jeremiah have a face-off in the recent promo. As DC fans know, Ace Chemicals plays a pretty important role in The Joker's origin story, so I really hope the show doesn't just sidestep that aspect entirely.
Cameron's third character might NOT be The Joker, of course, since Gotham has gone this long without introducing the Clown Prince already. Plus, there are several episodes between "Ace Chemicals" and the series finale, so I'm not sure how or why Jeremiah's Joker would stay dormant in the interim.
There are obviously other reasons why Cameron Monaghan's late-stage performance may be as someone other than The Joker, but the actor did say that DC freed up the reins for Gotham in Season 5. Admitting that the show wasn't previously able to even say "The Joker," due to rights issues and things, Monaghan explained the changes as such:
I will say we've been given certain liberties in this final season that we haven't been given before that's going to make itself pretty apparent as you watch it. All I'll say is when you have an episode that's a full-on Batman episode running around in the future, you're going to have characters that you'll expect to see. . . . I don't want to say exactly what my role in that is, but it was kick ass. It's one of the coolest opportunities I've ever had.
As it has previously been revealed, Gotham's series finale will take place ten years in the future, where we'll get to see the much more comic-friendly versions of characters like Penguin and Riddler. Plus, that'll be the episode where Bruce Wayne's Batman will finally come to life in this universe. So with all these other fully established entities announced, it's unlikely Gotham will bypass a big Joker introduction, even if Monaghan can't talk about it yet.
Is everyone ready to discover what Cameron Monaghan is talking about? In the meantime, we'll have to keep watching Gotham every Thursday night on Fox at 8:00 p.m. ET, not to mention all the other great shows coming in the early months of 2019.
