Gotham Season 4 returns tonight on FOX with a new Poison Ivy (Peyton List) and more of supposedly-not-the-joker-but-whatever Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan). We won’t be seeing Jerome until the next episode on March 8th, however, as the actor confirmed, but another actor on the series — David Mazouz, who plays Bruce Wayne — hinted at what happens when the series officially introduces the Joker later this season.
Last month Monaghan revealed when his character returns and hinted at the strange things coming:
https://instagram.com/p/BfjSB6mH_-t/
The official synopsis for the March 8th episode, “A Dark Knight: A Beautiful Darkness,” followed soon after:
Ivy tracks a secret project on which Wayne Enterprises is working and begins to target anyone that can give her information. Meanwhile, Jerome becomes obsessed with Penguin in Arkham. Also, Gordon begins to second guess his deal with Sofia and an unsettling dream sequence shakes up Bruce.
Now in an interview with Comic Book, David Mazouz again claimed Jerome isn’t the Joker but hinted at the connection between the two characters and how Joker’s introduction will shock people:
“It really is one of the biggest shocks. I think it’s safe to say that this kind of transition is not only the smartest thing, but the biggest kind of surprise that Gotham has thrown at its audience. […] We’ve been asking ourselves this question, ‘Is Jerome the Joker? He obviously is acting a lot like the Joker. Is he the Joker?’ This is a perfect way to answer that, because we don’t want to say yes, but we don’t want to say no. We don’t want to say no because Jerome is so much like the Joker, so what they end up doing is kind of a great balanced way to answer that question and to have Jerome maybe be involved in the creation of the Joker but have him not be the Joker.”
Mazouz went on to say, “[Jerome] is not the man that will have green hair and a pale face. He’s not that man.” This being Gotham, that probably means he’s totally that man. Or maybe they’ll do some kind of bonkers body swap with a different actor. Ooo, maybe Joaquin Phoenix? Wouldn’t see that coming.
Whatever they end up doing, hopefully they’ll keep guest star Monaghan around in some capacity. His Joker/not-Joker was just given an endorsement by another Joker, Mark Hamill:
Can't wait! @cameronmonaghan is KILLING IT as #TheJoker & that's NO JOKE. https://t.co/9Flrpa7hI7
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) February 19, 2018
(Via Comic Book, Screen Rant, We Got This Covered, and SyFy)