Saying a lot happened this past season on Gotham is a massive understatement. Still, those who cut the trailer shown today at San Diego Comic-Con did their best to sum it up. Throughout the sizzle reel, we got to relive some of the finer points such as the rise of the Riddler, the return of Jerome Valeska and Bruce Wayne taking his first great strides toward becoming Batman.
On that note, it very much sounds like we can expect to see David Mazouz’s take on the timeless icon to continue dispensing street justice throughout the alleys of his home city in the coming year. There’s just one catch, however: Don’t expect him to take up cape and cowl anytime soon, something executive producer John Stephens touched on during the panel:
“In season four Bruce will have body armour, and have grappling hooks, and wear a mask, but he wont be Batman. He will spend a lot of time with Ra’s and begin that transition but we have so many things to explore and move into the role. For David to get to do so many transitions and go to some very dark places that no one has ever seen that character go before in any of the other interpretations. But he won’t make that full transition. He won’t BE Batman, yet.”
If you were to ask me, that sounds somewhat like how Clark Kent operated in seasons 8-10 of Smallville, the years I refer to as “proto-Superman.” Basically, he had some great adventures and fought supervillains from the comics, but hadn’t donned the blue tights just yet.
One thing the Boy Scout didn’t have to his advantage, though, was the tutelage of Ra’s al Ghul, whom we know will play a big part in season 4. Right now, we’re baffled as to why Bruce would want to train under him after all that went down in the two-part finale, but Alexander Siddig, the Demon’s Head himself, affirms that his character won’t give up so easily:
“It has been about 2000 years of chasing what he believes to be his heir and he believes that to be Bruce and so he is sort of singularly focused on that.”
When it comes to the new footage that was shown, it’s hard not to get chills upon seeing a fully realized Scarecrow. As series lead Ben McKenzie put it, the very same Jonathan Crane we met a while back will return to incite mass panic:
“We met his father, Dr. Crane in Season 1. Taken our time and come back now to his son. Circumstances that we can’t describe now, but he takes on his father’s mantle and becomes the full Scarecrow.”
Gotham returns for its fourth season on Thursday, September 28 on Fox.