Thanks to what seems to be a never-ending delay, the Gotham TV series has somehow managed to beat the comic book medium to the “Three Jokers” punch. Granted, I’m waiting with bated breath for what’s sure to be an epic miniseries written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Jason Fabok to hit shelves, but the Batman prequel show has done a fine job of putting its own stamp on the Clown Prince of Crime’s legacy.
Of course, we all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the immensely talented Cameron Monaghan. But before we hear from the actor himself, let’s first take a look at what executive producer John Stephens had to say to Gamespot in regard to this topic. As he spoke, the showrunner touched on Jerome, Jeremiah and the third element to be introduced into the saga:
“We all know the character that some people think he is, some people say he’s not–that he’s supposed to be a precursor to at the very least. So, when you look at the Joker, and you break down elements of his personality, and you cleave off certain character traits. Some of those character traits we gave to Jerome. Some of those character traits we gave to Jeremiah. But, there were still some leftover character traits that we said, we haven’t used these elements yet. Specifically to me, horror or terror. I feel like there are elements of the Joker, some iterations of him, which he’s not just a clown prince of crime, but he’s actually a nightmare. And I feel like… some of those remain to be explored.”
If anything, those more nightmarish elements of the Joker seem to be expressed in a visual sense, given his appearance in those leaked photos from the series finale. From the look of it, the creative minds wanted to show what it’d look like if a guy actually fell into a vat of acid. And when you factor in the splash Jeremiah Valeska made at the end of the “Ace Chemicals” episode, then it appears the final preparations have been made for bringing this hellish vision to life.
When it comes to Monaghan himself, he seems to have a real grip on this character, even referencing how his appearance and personality have changed over the decades. Though nothing may illustrate this idea better than Grant Morrison’s “The Clown at Midnight,” the actor’s statement was filled with much wisdom:
“I think that there’s something really interesting about The Joker and reinvention. The idea that that’s a character that’s chameleonic. He changes depending on the situation. We’ve seen this character be reinvented so many different times across the show. so we’ve seen different permutations. And now, the final version of it is kind of it’s all crystallized into this final form, I would say. it’s not even so much a new person as it is, I think, it’s just the distilled version of what we’ve been doing for five years.”
Gotham airs on Thursday nights on Fox.