If I had to single out one favorite character to have appeared on Gotham during its memorable run, I’m not sure that I technically could. One year ago at this time, I would’ve answered with “Jerome Valeska,” but he’s since been killed off. In his place is now twin brother Jeremiah, also played by the incomparable Cameron Monaghan. Amazingly, the guy’s been able to serve up two distinctly different takes on the Joker.
If that weren’t enough, Monaghan will soon play a third iteration of the Clown Prince of Crime, as it’d previously been said that Jeremiah will undergo some sort of transformation. If I were to hazard a guess, Selina Kyle may have actually killed him last week, and now he’ll emerge as a changed man when being revived.
This may sound confusing to some, so let’s take a look at what executive producer John Stephens told ComicBook.com about what’s to come:
“One of the themes of the show has always been about the evolution of identity and how fluid it is. And how people can always change themselves from one identity to another. Those obvious examples are obviously like Bruce Wayne, Batman, that view of the world. One of the things we like to do on the show is take that theme and see how it plays out in different fashions with different characters. So, especially with Cameron Monaghan’s character, first with Jerome and then to Jeremiah, then from Jeremiah to this new character. Obviously, we were always saying that this character is not the Joker but we were always saying what are different elements of the Joker that we can actually use and bring out and develop? Weighing the way you can look at and say, hey, this character may not be the Joker but we can imagine how this character could have lead to a character like the Joker, down the road somewhere.”
As Stephens continued, he shed more light on the situation:
“So, to that I want to say, there are some elements, I’d say, of the character of the Joker himself that we see down the road that have not been present so far, either in Jerome or in Jeremiah. But those elements and characters are present in the new iteration of Jeremiah that comes out.”
After reading all that, I’ll ask you to recall that promo from last fall showing a “Mr. J” wishing us a “Happy Halloween.” My gut tells me this new personality to manifest could end up referring to himself as “Mr. J” or just “J.” I guess that’d be the closest the producers would be able to get to incorporating the Ace of Knaves into the Batman prequel series.
Furthermore, this new character of sorts no doubt has to be the one we’ve seen adorning portraits like those found in the gallery above. After all, he dons flashier, more Joker-like attire than anything worn by Jeremiah proper, not to mention smiling more often.
To find out how these events unfold, be sure to keep watching Gotham on Thursday nights on Fox.
Published: Jan 31, 2019 02:10 pm