Batman prequel show Gotham finally resolved many (but not all) questions about the Joker this month when they introduced Jerome Valeska’s twin brother Jeremiah (both played by Cameron Monaghan), then had Jerome die (again) in a seemingly permanent way (again), but not before he left a booby-trapped jack-in-the-box filled with a dose of Smylex to drive Jeremiah insane and encourage him to “burn it all down.” Now Fox has released another Joker-centric trailer (video above) for the next episodes, and it just raises another slew of questions. Along with that comes a new set photo of the not-Joker-but-whatever character and an additional video teasing a harlequin-suit wearing blond woman (hmm).
In the video above, Jerome’s last will and testament comes in the form of a VHS tape, leading to more mayhem in Gotham and rumors that Jerome is back from the dead again. You might be wondering why Jeremiah doesn’t have the pale-faced look in these upcoming scenes. It appears he might switch back and forth between his normal appearance and an alternate personality, or perhaps he uses makeup to look normal. (The writers still need him to have conversations with Bruce Wayne without raising suspicion, after all.) As for how he’ll look when he’s full-on bonkers, the actor posted a photo to his Instagram captioned “Meet J.”
Yes, they’re only calling him “J.” instead of Joker. Gotham showrunner Danny Cannon explained they won’t be calling any character “Joker,” but they’re nonetheless leaning heavily into the Joker vibe with these twin brothers and a harlequin-suit wearing character who is obviously Jeremiah’s bodyguard Ecco (Francesca Root-Dodson). Here’s her putting a gun to Jim Gordon’s head while they’re in Jeremiah’s office, standing in front of what appears to be a completed version of his Wayne Enterprises-funded energy-generating invention (which will surely be used only for good ends now that Jeremiah has gone insane).
Don’t expect anyone to call her “Harley,” though. Executive producer John Stephens has said, “We’re never going to see Harley Quinn.” The show may not be calling anyone Joker or Harley, but they’re still doing their own spin on those storylines. That’s one way to get around any conflicts with the movies (and the less this reminds people of Jared Leto’s edgelord Joker, the better).
Here’s the promo and synopsis for this Thursday’s episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2a-xhlVe08
MAYHEM ENSUES ON AN ALL-NEW “GOTHAM” THURSDAY, MAY 3, ON FOX
Chaos erupts at the GCPD, sending Gordon on a wild goose chase for the culprit behind the mass takeover. Meanwhile, a friend of Bruce’s becomes paranoid, resulting in rash and destructive behavior in the all-new “A Dark Knight: That Old Corpse” episode of GOTHAM airing Thursday, May 3 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
(Via Coming Soon, CBM, We Got This Covered, Cameron Monaghan, and Gotham)