The upcoming fourth season of Gotham, probably the most important yet of Fox’s Batman prequel, is due to arrive this Thursday. To get fans hyped for the premiere, the network has now dropped a four-and-a-half minute promo that reminds us of the major events of season 3 and teases what’s to come in the new run.
Carrying the inevitable tagline, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself,” the trailer reintroduces Jonathan Crane AKA Scarecrow (Charlie Tahan), after his debut back in season 1, who’s set to be the new big bad. Luckily for Gotham, there’s a “dark hero” rising up to defeat the evil that runs through the city.
Yes, as has been teased quite a bit recently, David Mazouz’s Bruce Wayne will finally step up to become a crime-fighting masked vigilante in the new season. Likewise, his on/off girlfriend Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) is on the path to transforming into Catwoman.
The most interesting new material featured in this trailer are the final moments involving Bruce and Alfred (Sean Pertwee) meeting with Lucius Fox (Chris Chalk). In scenes that will be very familiar to fans of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Lucius reveals a state of the art suit for Bruce to wear while he’s out “rock climbing.” If you swap “rock climbing” for “spelunking,” you have a clear match for Bruce and Lucius’ scenes in Batman Begins.
Some fans might see this is as a cheap ripoff on Gotham‘s part, but the series has always liberally borrowed from various Batman adaptations. Check out Selina’s resurrection by cats back in season 3 – echoing Batman Returns – which is shown earlier in the trailer. With that in mind, you can’t blame them for paying homage to the definitive version of the Caped Crusader’s origin story.
Make sure to check out Gotham season 4, going under the subtitle “A Dark Knight,” when it arrives on Fox this Thursday, September 21st.