Fox have announced a high-profile series that will follow the adventures of a young Commissioner Gordon. Based on the synopsis, trailer and logo (coming up) ‘Gotham’ will be more in-tune with the dark, grittiness of the first season of Arrow (which I loved) as opposed to Smallville (which I had a love-hate relationship with).
In the series James Gordon will be played by Ben McKenzie and viewers will follow the rookie around the violent and increasingly strange city of Gotham. He will encounter crimes and mysteries related to future Batman villains such as Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor), The Riddler, Catwoman and the recurring presence of Bruce Wayne himself, at this point still a child played by 13 year-old newcomer David Mazouz.
Unlike Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, the series will not share any official continuity with the movies that Warner Bros are currently working on.
Here’s the official word on the show followed by the trailer:
Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world’s greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon’s story and his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker?
“Gotham” is an origin story of the great DC Comics super villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told. From executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (“The Mentalist,” “Rome”), “Gotham” follows one cop’s rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering on the edge of evil and chronicles the birth of one of the most popular super heroes of our time.
Growing up in Gotham City’s surrounding suburbs, James Gordon (Ben McKenzie, “Southland,” “The O.C.”) romanticized the city as a glamorous and exciting metropolis where his late father once served as a successful district attorney. Now, two weeks into his new job as a Gotham City detective and engaged to his beloved fiancée, Barbara Kean (Erin Richards, Open Grave, “Breaking In”), Gordon is living his dream – even as he hopes to restore the city back to the pure version he remembers it was as a kid.
Brave, honest and ready to prove himself, the newly-minted detective is partnered with the brash, but shrewd police legend Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue, “Sons of Anarchy,” “Terriers,” “Vikings,” “Copper”), as the two stumble upon the city’s highest-profile case ever: the murder of local billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne. At the scene of the crime, Gordon meets the sole survivor: the Waynes’ hauntingly intense 12-year-old son, Bruce (David Mazouz, “Touch”), toward whom the young detective feels an inexplicable kinship. Moved by the boy’s profound loss, Gordon vows to catch the killer.
As he navigates the often-underhanded politics of Gotham’s criminal justice system, Gordon will confront imposing gang boss Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith, The Matrix films, “HawthoRNe,” Collateral), and many of the characters who will become some of fiction’s most renowned, enduring villains, including a teenaged Selina Kyle/the future Catwoman (acting newcomer Camren Bicondova) and Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor, “The Walking Dead,” Another Earth).
Although the crime drama will follow Gordon’s turbulent and singular rise through the Gotham City police department, led by Police Captain Sarah Essen (Zabryna Guevara, “Burn Notice”), it also will focus on the unlikely friendship Gordon forms with the young heir to the Wayne fortune, who is being raised by his unflappable butler, Alfred (Sean Pertwee, “Camelot,” “Elementary”). It is a friendship that will last them all of their lives, playing a crucial role in helping the young boy eventually become the crusader he’s destined to be.
Above you got your first look at Gotham’s skyline (modern, familiar, yet not too close to any one American city). You saw flashes of the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents, some action with Det. Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and his partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue). There’s moments of a young Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor, with umbrella!), Catwoman (Camren Bicondova, on gargoyle perch), The Riddler (Cory Michael Smith, looking creepily sly as a Gotham P.D. forensic tech) and Poison Ivy (taking care of a plant, naturally). Ah, and Jada Pinkett Smith as a new character, gangster Fish Mooney. All in all it looks like it could be a great show that gives some of the recently neglected villains some airtime. I guess the overwhelming question is can Fox work a Batman show without Batman?
What do you guys think? Will you be tuning in?
Jennie Ivins
I suppose since Ben MacKenzie looks a bit like Russel Crowe, they’re going for a tough-guy Gordon as opposed to the more thoughtful James Gordon. It’s not part of the continuity so I can forgive the fact that everyone is meeting each other before The Batman is born. We’ll see. Batman has enough fans that it might make a go of it if the feel is gritty enough.
It’s good they won’t put it in the film continuity: it would have been too hard to link it to Nolan trilogy, and it can’t hurt it won’t be related to “Man of Steel” and what will follow.
I like that the Joker doesn’t appear, most likely it means they will not just ignore the comics (and “The Killing Joke”).
And I’m curious to see how they’ll choose to show the man before the villains (I really hope they’ll only show hints of villany, so we may understand how they got there but seeing only a few, if any, actually going there).