As much as fans love Gotham, the FOX prequel series has always had to dance around some things due to the difficult process of making a Batman-related show without actually having the clearance from DC high-ups to use certain key elements of the mythos. A big one that we’ve been told before is that the name “Joker” is off-limits.
However, these limitations may be a thing of the past as Gotham reaches its end. With the fifth season currently airing, we only have a few more weeks to go until the big series finale arrives – bringing with it Batman himself, as the episode will be set ten years in the future. We assumed that we’d get a few brief glimpse at the Dark Knight in the finale’s last few moments, but some intriguing comments from star Cameron Monaghan suggest otherwise.
While chatting to EW, the man who plays Proto-Joker Jeremiah Valeska teased that the finale will be a “full-on Batman episode.” When asked about the no-Joker rule, Monaghan gave the impression that the ban had been loosened for Gotham‘s final season and that we may not just see a name-check of the Joker by the last episode, but possibly the final form of the Clown Prince of Crime as well.
“For now. That was the case when I talked about it prior. I will say we’ve been given certain liberties in this final season that we haven’t been given before that’s going to make itself pretty apparent as you watch it. All I’ll say is when you have an episode that’s a full-on Batman episode running around in the future, you’re going to have characters that you’ll expect to see. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say at this point that it’s 10 years in the future — that’s been talked about openly by the producers and showrunners – I don’t want to say exactly what my role in that is, but it was kick ass. It’s one of the coolest opportunities I’ve ever had.”
Monaghan’s careful not to say too much here, but his excitement for his role in the finale sounds a lot like he might’ve gotten to play the fully-evolved Joker opposite Batman himself in the time-jumped episode. After all, he does promise us that the finale will feature the characters fans expect to see and the Caped Crusader’s nemesis has got to be right at the top of that list.
That’s more than we’d previously hoped for, though, so maybe we shouldn’t read too much into his statement. Still, it sure does sound like we’ve got a lot of treats ahead of us in Gotham season 5, which unfolds every Thursday on FOX.