Scarecrow Will Return To Gotham, May Be Recast

To say that Gotham has utilized a healthy amount of Batman’s rogues gallery is an understatement. Heck, we’ve seen everyone from the Penguin and the Riddler to Professor Pyg and Flamingo throughout the course of its four seasons. But, as is to be expected, it’s the ones who are more well known among the mainstream that most often put in recurring appearances.

So, while we bide our time waiting for the return of Cameron Monaghan as Jerome Valeska, the proto-Joker, we’ve learned that none other than the Scarecrow will again be wreaking havoc later this season. In fact, a recent breakdown unearthed by That Hashtag Show not only tells us exactly when he’ll come back, but forces us to believe that a recasting could be on the agenda:

(JONATHAN CRANE) Male, Early to Mid 20s. Caucasian. After being dosed with a fear toxin developed by his late father, Jonathan Crane was paralyzed by fear, until he learned to turn that fear on others. Dressing up as a scarecrow, he now uses home-made fear toxin to terrorize Gotham. Erratic, terrifying, and psychopathic, he no longer identifies as “Jonathan Crane,” preferring to go by his true name — “Scarecrow”…. RECURRING GUEST STAR, ALSO APPEARS IN EPISODE 417 & EPISODE 418

Now, recasting is nothing new to this series (just ask Poison Ivy), but we’re wondering how the producers will pull off this one. Will Jonathan Crane have his appearance altered due to, um, reasons just as Ivy Pepper has twice endured, or, will this be but a simple swapping of actors? Perhaps they should’ve thought this through after allowing Charlie Tahan to reprise his role from season 1, but we’re not calling the shots.

Conversely, though, it should be noted that the outlet overlooked the fact that Jonathan has already appeared on the show, and the above breakdown could’ve been originally circulated before season 4 ever started filming. After all, the “also appears in” bit could’ve been complementary to Tahan’s appearances in episodes 4×01 and 4×02, thus making it known that he’d have to come back later on. Either way, we’ll keep you posted on this situation as the season progresses.

Gotham returns with new episodes this spring on Fox.