Warning: spoilers for the latest Gotham episode are ahead!
This past week on Gotham, viewers got their first tease of Indian Hill, the mysterious facility that’s conducting brutal experiments on Gotham City’s “monsters.” While we’ll have to wait to see what the exact story behind this place is, we’re about to meet to meet the man who’s running this operation. It’s been announced that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star BD Wong has been cast to play Dr. Hugo Strange, one of Batman’s oldest enemies.
Wong’s Strange is described as the new head of Arkham Asylum who “appears altruistic,”, but actually “harbors a dark secret” that will eventually make him Gotham City’s greatest threat. To the public, it will look like he’s working to rehabilitate the worst the city has to offer, but he’ll later be revealed as the man behind Indian Hill. Fox also told Comicbook.com that the Indian Hill facility he's running is actually a black ops program being headed by Wayne Enterprises, and its goal is “creating the ultimate super human...of super villain.”
Just like in the Batman comics, Arkham Asylum is one of the sketchiest locales in Gotham. It was reopened early in Season 1, and midway through that season, Jim Gordon was assigned there following a temporary demotion. The Season 2 premiere saw six of its inmates, including Barbara Kean and Jerome Valeska, being broken out of Arkham. Under Strange’s leadership, we can expect less “healing” going on there and more malevolent plotting. As for Indian Hill, we only caught glimpses of it as the incapacitated Bridget Pike, a.k.a. Firefly, was being wheeled through at the end of “By Fire,” but it looks like a horrific place.
Dr. Hugo Strange (not to be confused with Marvel’s Dr. Stephen Strange) made his comics debut in 1940's Detective Comics #36, several months before Joker and Catwoman first appeared. He started out as a stereotypical mad scientist, but in the modern era was turned into a brilliant psychiatrist that uses his knowledge of chemistry, biology and the human mind to torment the weak. He was originally hired by the GCPD to help them capture Batman, and after growing obsessed with the vigilante (to the point that he dressed like him in private), he eventually deduced that Bruce Wayne was the Caped Crusader. Outside of the comics, Strage has appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, The Batman, Young Justice and Batman: Arkham City.
In the world of TV, BD Wong is best known as Father Ray Mukada in Oz and Dr. George Huang in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. His other roles include playing Henry Wu in Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, Shang in Mulan and most recently White Rose in Mr. Robot. Strange is the latest Batman villain to be added to the show, following Nathan Darrow’s casting as Mr. Freeze. Fans can also expect to see Clayface and the Mad Hatter appear later this season.
New episodes of Gotham air Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.
