Throughout its first three seasons, we’ve seen Gotham forge its own path by reassembling the parts that make up the Batman mythos, generously reinterpreting more than a few characters. This has often been to the chagrin of staunch purists, but on the plus side, the producers can lay claim to always keeping us guessing where the story is going.
One such curveball that was thrown at us near the end of May’s finale was that of the revelation that Butch Gilzean’s birth name was, in fact, Cyrus Gold. And considering that he was shot in the head during his last encounter with Barbara Kean, we fully expect for him to be a changed man whenever he regains consciousness. In other words, he’s becoming the classic Batman villain, Solomon Grundy.
While it’s understandable that some viewers got attached to the Gilzean persona, those same people shouldn’t be opposed to seeing Drew Powell flex his acting muscles this season. In fact, he sounds like he can’t wait to play the brutish Grundy.
Here’s what he had to say on that front in a recent interview with ComicBook.com:
“Giddy like a school girl I think is probably the most accurate way to say it. I am very excited. Even shooting that scene with Erin [Richards] and I, it was kind of the end of the day, I remember it was raining, we kind of had to do it quickly, and so it all kind of happened so fast and it was only after that I was kind of like, ‘Oh yeah, I guess Butch is dead now.’”
Like we said, we’re expecting to see a changed man, but Powell went on to hint that some traces of Butch will remain:
“I do think there’s going to be a lot of Butch still in Grundy and I think that makes perfect sense in the way that [producer John Stephens] and the writers have set this up and so I’m really excited to kind of now bring the two together in this new character that I really love.”
Still, one has to wonder how much intelligence this iteration of Grundy will truly possess. Quite frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being a bit more simple-minded, but he’s going to have to have some linguistic skills if he hopes to interact well with his new buddies in Edward Nygma and Lee Thompkins.
Gotham returns for its fourth season on Thursday, September 21 on Fox.
