After being somewhat disappointed to hear that Jerome Valeska will be entirely absent from the midseason premiere of Gotham – no matter how heavily he’s factored into its marketing – it was nice to learn that he’s been confirmed to appear in the episode to follow.
Originally, we expected for said episode to wrap up his arc for the current season, and while that is still very possible, new evidence has surfaced suggesting that he may have a recurring role in the second half of season 4. It all comes to us courtesy of a recent DC All Access outing in which they sit down with some of the creative minds behind the series.
At the 7:36 mark, executive producers Danny Cannon and John Stephens tease where the show is headed for the immediate future, hinting at “an event” that’ll affect the entire cast, even leading to Poison Ivy’s latest rebirth of sorts.
But what especially caught our attention was that of Stephens speaking of Jerome uniting some of the most dangerous people the city has to offer under his insane vision:
“Jerome has a plan for Gotham, and so he wants to get out into Gotham and make the asylum that is Arkham Asylum be reflected in Gotham as a whole. He can’t do it himself, so he has to put together his own Legion of Horribles, which includes Penguin as his right hand, and then all these other characters who we know from the rogues gallery: Scarecrow and Jervis Tetch, who’s gonna come back as well, Firefly, Freeze. They sit around a table much like this one where Jerome can sit at the head of it, and we have his band of terrible people.”
From the sound of it, the producers aim to recreate a certain infamous panel from Batman: The Long Halloween (seen above), but many of us are still wondering how the Joker factors into it all. With even David Mazouz reassuring us that Jerome is not the Clown Prince of Crime, Cannon’s words offer only more confusion:
“We will see a conclusion to that character. Or is it a new beginning?”
Upon hearing that cryptic statement, we can only think that it adds further validity to our theory that the Joker will, in fact, emerge as a new personality, overwriting the Jerome we know in a fashion similar to what was witnessed in Grant Morrison’s “The Clown at Midnight.” Time will tell, of course, but you have to admit the stars are aligning a little too well.
Gotham returns with its midseason premiere tonight on Fox.