The Cast of Fox's 'Gotham' Sheds More Light on the Dark Batman Prequel

GOTHAM: GOTHAM traces the rise of the great DC Comics Super-Villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new …

Probably the most-anticipated new show of the fall TV season, Fox's Batman prequel Gotham (debuting September 22) might also be the most ambitious TV version of a comic book we've seen yet. With Bruce Wayne still only a child, Ben McKenzie (Southland, The O.C.) stars as Detective James Gordon, a cop fighting for law and order in a violent, crime-ridden city with no caped crusader to save it.

"As soon as they're into the capes and costumes, it's less interesting than seeing how they got there," said Gotham executive producer Bruno Heller (The Mentalist, Rome) at Fox's summer press tour today. And indeed, Gotham features not only a pre-teen Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), but younger versions of famed Batman villains The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), The Riddler (Cory Michael Smith), and Catwoman (Camren Bicondova).

McKenzie and Heller at Fox's summer press tour

But the focus of Gotham is the Gordon character, who Heller calls "the moral linchpin of the show." McKenzie says Gordon definitely has his work cut out for him: "The structure that exists around him is so daunting, no single man is going to be able to overcome it." But Heller wanted to tell a more realistic tale within a comic-book environment: "This is about people trying to overcome legitimate problems, rather than trying to learn how to fly."

One new character who doesn't come from the comic books is crime boss Fish Mooney, played by Jada Pinkett Smith. Calling her character a combination of real-life drug trafficker Griselda Blanco and Sunset Boulevard diva Norma Desmond, Pinkett Smith relishes the chance to play a female bad guy: "I think women make very interesting villains. There are corners to a woman's darkness that are not seen very often, and that can be terrifying."

Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney (Michael Lavine/FOX)

The dark, decaying look of Gotham is strongly influenced by 1970s New York, which Heller says was always attractive to him, despite the imminent danger: "It was precisely the decay and decadence and anarchy that was… exciting and sexy." Director Danny Cannon cites visual influences from the '70s punk-rock scene like CBGB, the Ramones, and Blondie, along with the 1979 gang-warfare classic The Warriors.

That's all to say: This isn't a kid-friendly Batman show in the vein of the Adam West '60s version. Don't expect cartoony "bam!" "sock!" violence, Heller warns: "Violence, if you show it, should be disturbing. It's a crime show, and crime is violence." Besides, he notes, Batman has never been a light, breezy character, even for a comic-book superhero: "He's always been the darker side of the id. He's not Superman."

Posted in: Dark Batman Prequel, Gotham