‘Gotham’ Will Balance Off Villains With New Heroes In Season Two. Will Batman Be One Of Them?

Warning: This article may contain spoilers for Gotham.

The first season of Gotham has been both criticized and praised for presenting itself to viewers as dark crime story, establishing the city of Gotham as a den of corrupt officials from the mayor down to the lowest patrol officer. The few would-be heroes populating the city of Gotham having been long-since crushed into obedience through fear, intimidation, and bribery. If any lesson has been learned, it’s that everyone has a price. Well, almost everyone.

Lacking a superhero of its own, Gotham has had to rely on James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) for its justice, and certainly Gordon has paid the price many times over, while receiving little in the way of recognition. When James hasn’t been fighting for justice in Gotham, he’s been doing what little he could to mentor young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) as the orphaned boy is unwittingly guided into the role for which he will ultimately play: Batman.

There’s no denying that the first year of Gotham has been highly successful in setting the stage for this Batman origin story, introducing a collection of supervillains and getting Gotham fans familiar with the dark and corrupt city. The second season, however, will take off the kid gloves and send the city of Gotham into a “decline into chaos,” according to showrunner Bruno Heller.

Gotham will see more villains in the second year, of course. It has already been leaked previously that Gotham will introduce Clayface, The Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, and Tigress in the new season, which already seems like quite a handful, but it has also been revealed that The Joker has been added to that roster of bad guys as well.

That is quite a handful for one honest police detective, even if he is James Gordon, so Gotham showrunners have revealed that fans can look forward to an influx of heroes as well, though they may not be of the caped variety. Little has been revealed about the identities of these heroes, but it is known that Harvey Dent, who had already appeared in Gotham, will be returning.

Also joining the fight will be Bruce Wayne, as he steps further onto the path of evolving into Batman. At this year’s Comic Con, David Mazouz spoke about the evolution of his Gotham character. The stage has already been set for that transformation with the revelation of the hidden room, which will become the Batcave.

“Bruce’s discovery of that room in the season finale was a turning point. It’s going to touch everything in Bruce’s life. It’s going to turn the page to a different chapter in every imaginable way on his journey to becoming Batman,” Gotham‘s Mazouz said. “In season one, Bruce and Alfred were constantly butting heads, but in season two, because of the cave, they’re going to go through a really rough patch. But one they get through it, they’re going to really start to become a team. They’re really going to have the Batman/Alfred partnership that you know.”

David revealed that the multiple personalities for which Bruce Wayne is known will be explored more deeply in season two of Gotham and fans will be exposed to the complexities more than they have previously seen in Gotham.

“Bruce Wayne has multiple personas. He has Batman persona, but he also his public playboy persona to fool everyone. And moving into season two, we’ll see more of that second persona from Bruce. Another way, on the villains side, we’re going to see the villains shift from mobsters to super villains. The villains that we know in Batman are going to be the ones who take over Gotham. Penguin is at the threshold right now, but he’s going to meet people who are ten times worse,” the Gotham star said. “And because the threat of villains is going to be so immense, the heroes will really have to team up. So you’ll see Bruce and Gordon team up a lot more. And because of that, Bruce will get out a lot more. Gordon is really going to start that mentorship we talked about. They’re really going to start to become closer, and because of that Bruce will find himself more involved with the crime world.”

The Gotham season premiere will air on Monday September 21 on FOX.

[Featured image courtesy of FOX/Gotham]