There are many reasons for fans to be excited about the upcoming fifth and final season of Gotham. Obviously, the big one’s that Batman’s 100% on his way, as the finale will jump forward by ten years and check in on Bruce Wayne when he’s finally suited up as the Dark Knight. However, before we get to that, season 5 looks set to be full of other treats, including a few new villains who’ll make their mark on the show before it ends.
The most notable of these, of course, is Bane. In a twist on the usual story, Eduardo Torrance will take on the mantle of the antagonist most famous for breaking the Bat’s back on the show. Typically, Torrance is known as King Snake, Bane’s father, but it wouldn’t be Gotham if it didn’t tear up what we thought we knew about our favorite Batman villains, right?
Now, it seems we have our first look at the series’ version of Bane. In the below group photo of the cast of episode 5×09, as shared by the Riddler himself, Cory Michael Smith, actor Shane West can be seen third from left. Unlike the rest of line-up, though, it looks a lot like he’s still in costume, and from what little we can see, he appears to be wearing some sort of armor.
Given that this doesn’t look particularly Bane-like, it could just be the outfit Torrance wears in his cover identity as a military man sent to clear up Gotham after the “No Man’s Land” event. From what we understand, he’ll be portrayed as an old army buddy of Jim Gordon’s, which will put the cop off his back. But we the audience know that he’s secretly up to no good.
Just what he has planned remains to be seen, of course, but given that the 10-episode Gotham season 5 is set to air on FOX in early 2019, it shouldn’t bee too much longer now until we find out.