With the news that Gotham is set to get a fifth and final season – albeit with a truncated 13 episode length – fans are expecting to see one thing above all else next year: for David Mazouz’s young Bruce Wayne to finally embrace his destiny and become the hero the city needs right now, Batman. And sure enough, it’s been reported that the next run will explore the boy billionaire’s path towards becoming the Dark Knight.
But what does Gotham producer John Stephens have to say about that? Well, ComicBook.mom made sure to ask the show’s EP outright how much of Batman’s origins we’ll get to see in the final season, and Stephens gave a very promising response. In fact, he promised that the character would “go all the way” towards stepping up as the iconic flying rodent-themed vigilante.
“You know, I think what we’re gonna see, and again I don’t wanna like spoil anything for fans who are never gonna get to watch it. We are gonna get to see him make the final steps you know? We are not gonna leave anything on the table or whatever the phrase is. We’re gonna put it all on the table, take it off of the table, yeah. I mean there are not going to be any steps for Bruce Wayne to take to becoming Batman that don’t get taken this season. We’re gonna see him go all the way.”
Though no doubt the production team’s plans have been hastened by the fact that Gotham‘s time is up, season 4 already did a great job of moving Bruce further along the road to becoming Batman, so that it makes sense that it’ll happen next season. After all, he started fighting crime in a mask, he got a proto-Batmobile and he even received a nightmarish vision of his future. What’s more, to further make the transformation more plausible, season 5 looks to feature a time jump which will move the action forward somewhat.
Going by Stephens’ comments, we wonder if David Mazouz’s idea for what Gotham‘s final shots could be might actually come true: Bruce Wayne donning the Batman cowl for the first time. I guess we’ll find out when the prequel returns to FOX in 2019.