The fall TV season is beginning to heat up, and tonight marks the return of Gotham, Fox’s prequel to the Batman legend which follows the early career of Gotham City detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie). Last season was focused heavily on the introduction of several new villains, and this year should be no different, with Huge Strange and The Mad Hatter expected to appear alongside returning characters like The Penguin and Edward Nygma.
Earlier this year at San Diego Comic-Con, we had an opportunity to catch up with some of Gotham‘s key cast members to get a few hints about what lies in store for Season 3. Check out the highlights from our conversations below.
Ben McKenzie (Jim Gordon)
On what brings Gordon back to Gotham:
“Rejection. He goes down to find Lee and to make everything right, and in Gotham that never works. So he finds himself back in the city, and we’re six months later, and monsters who were unleashed on the city in Season 2 are now running amok. It’s near anarchy in the city.
So Gordon, disillusioned with everything, doesn’t return to the GCPD – he’s a bounty hunter, and he’s tracking down these monsters and bringing them in for a price. He’s living a very solitary and lonely life. It’s a new place for him, and it doesn’t last forever, but it allows us to reset the show yet again and to give him a real journey over the course of the season.”
David Mazouz (Bruce Wayne)
On what Bruce will be up to in Season 3:
“Bruce is going to be taking on some major battles in Season 3. There are going to be some major opponents for him in Season 3 that he’ll take on all on his own, and it’s gonna be so much fun. In Season 3, he’s gonna have to check himself and say, ‘What do I really want in this game? Who am I in the world of Gotham? What is my grander purpose?’ And it’s gonna be really fascinating to see what he decides and I think season 3 is gonna be struggling with that. And you’re definitely going to see him start to develop his playboy persona, so he can put that on for the public and do even deeper detective work in Season 3.”
On Bruce’s relationship w/ Alfred;
“It’s better than it ever was. They’ve gone through so many phases. At the very beginning, Alfred was the help – Bruce kind of saw him as ‘oh, now you’re the one that’s gonna be taking care of me? Great.’ And then slowly he became a kind of father figure, and then after that they became partners. And that’s where we are now.”
Cory Michael Smith (Edward Nygma)
On Nygma’s regrets:
I don’t think he sees himself as having done too much horrible stuff. His first murder was purposeful, and not unlike Batman, he kind of cleansed the city a little bit. But when we start in Season 3, time will have passed, so he’s been sitting in Arkham for months and months – that’s going to dilute his spirit. But when he gets out, it’s not going to be as a fugitive, it’s going to be as someone that’s back in the world. So he gets to contemplate these things: ‘who do I want to be? Who do I want to ally myself with?’ But remorse is not really a part of it.
Sean Pertwee (Alfred Pennyworth)
On where Alfred gets his energy:
“He gets it from young Master Bruce. He even says it in the episode where he gets stabbed by his old friend Reggie, he says ‘I need the boy as much as the boy needs me.’ He’s very closeted, he’s a very dark soul. He’s got post-traumatic stress disorder, he never sleeps – I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems to do everything in the entire manor. He cleans and he cooks and he doesn’t sleep, because if he closes his eyes he sees the people he’s killed. So to detract from that, to be concerned about someone else is the think that keeps him alive.”
On Alfred helping Bruce create his persona:
“Oh absolutely, [Alfred] will be fully aware of it. In the SAS, there are so many attributes you have to have, you have to study so many different elements. The art of deception is one of them, and camouflage, and all of that – if you think about it- is part of the persona of the man who later dons the cowl. So yes, Alfred will be very much a part of that. They definitely start to develop the sort of “Richie Rich” persona as a smokescreen to cover up what they’re really up to.”
Gotham returns on Monday, September 19, exclusively on Fox.