The most anticipated new show of the Fall season is certainly Gotham and more details about the Batman prequel have surfaced.
The premiere episode will feature stalwart Batman villains Penguin, Catwoman, The Riddler and original creation Fish Mooney, but the show’s executive producer has said that fans shouldn’t expect a new bad guy every week.
“You have to front-load the pilot with the best that you’ve got. You have to open big,” executive producer Bruno Heller said last month at the Television Critics Assoc. summer press tour.
Heller said that the show will take precaution in introducing new villains to the series, and previewed the initial season as really being about Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (played by Robin Lord Taylor).
“We’ll be far more careful with how we roll out the villains and in what way,” he said. “Season 1 is very much about the rise of Penguin (played by Robin Lord Taylor) and his titanic struggle with Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith),” he continued.
The interesting thing to note about the show is that there will be an absence of a major superhero. As Bruce Wayne is depicted as a child, the EP says that the city of Gotham is truly the main protagonist.
“If there is a superhero in the show, it’s [the city of] Gotham,” Heller explained. “It’s a larger-than-life character. … Heroes are more interesting than superheroes. Superheroes do the impossible and drama is really about the physically possible. This is about people and people trying to overcome real problems as opposed to trying to learn how to fly.”
Despite not featuring Batman, Heller said that the show will still appeal to fans of the comic.
“The really interesting parts of these stories is the origin stories. This is about how all these people got there.”
Gotham premieres Monday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m.
