Comic book geeks expecting to see the Caped Crusader in Netflix’s “Gotham” will be sad to hear that the billionaire playboy’s alter ego is not set to make an appearance. Series creator Bruno Heller confirmed this himself at the TCA summer press tour.
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Bruce Wayne a.k.a Batman
He said:
“If there is a superhero in the show, it is Gotham,”
“That’s a larger than life character that’s a central part of the show. To me, heroes are more interesting than superheroes because the difference is superheroes do the impossible and drama is really about the physically possible. This is about people and people trying to overcome real problems versus trying to learn how to fly.”
Placing focus on origin stories, instead of Batman the superhero, he clarifies his statement saying:
“For me, the really interesting parts of this story are the origin stories of all the characters. As soon as you’re into capes and costumes, it’s less interesting than seeing how these people got there.”
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Batman vs The Joker by Lee Bermejo
Claiming that Gotham wasn’t helpless without Batman, he adds:
“[It’s a story of] how do you deal with crime of this level when there are no superheroes?”
“When ordinary men and women are dealing with the struggle waiting for a savior. It’s about men and women and not about superheroes and that’s the more interesting story.”
Responding to rumors that the DC series would include the origin story of the Joker, Heller said:
“We will be playing with… Not just with Joker.”
“Certainly the Joker is a good example. In the pilot, you see there’s a comedian there. People immediately leap.”
“Yeah, we’ll play with that down the line. Not over the course of one season, no, because people will still get tired of that. ‘Is that the Joker? Is that the Joker?’ No. In a subtle way, we’ll be doing that and hopefully we’ll fool them in the end.”
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Bruce Wayne a.k.a Batman
He also addressed concerns with Poison Ivy’s name in the upcoming series. In the comic books, Poison Ivy is known as Ivy Pepper instead of Pamela Isley. Heller explains:
“It’s really about being able to tell the secret histories of these stories. If you just re-tell stories exactly as they’ve been told before, whilst you’re being true to the created mythology, you’re not really adding anything to it. So you have to find ways of finding more.”
He added:
“And in this case, we’ve set up a situation in which Ivy Pepper, her mom is sick, her dad is dead… She’s going to go to the orphanage. And she’s a nice young girl; relatively undamaged. And she will find people to adopt her. And then we will start on the Poison Ivy story that people are familiar with.”
“The Mentalist” creator Bruno Heller develops the one-hour prequel drama, focusing on the younger days of Jim Gordon, as he learns the ropes in Gotham City and begins to encounter characters and villains that will become significant in later Batman stories. He executive produces and writes the pilot, while Danny Cannon lends a hand as executive producer and will direct.
The crime drama based on the popular DC comic books will launch Monday, September 22 at 8 P.M. on FOX. Fans of the Caped Crusader should mark their calendars and head to Comic-Con International in San Diego on Saturday, July 26. DC’s ‘Gotham’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Arrow’ and ‘Constantine’ will be promoted in a three-hour presentation. FOX’s “Gotham” will premiere the first episode, followed by Q&A with the cast and crew.
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