The cast of Gotham returned to NYCC one final time over the weekend to kick of promotion for the final series.
Stars David Mazouz, Donal Logue, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Camren Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Chris Chalk and executive producer John Stephens were on hand to tease fans about what is to come.
Our friends at CBR.com were on hand to give us a rundown of the panel:
“It’s exciting, but it’s also scary,” Stevens said of the final season.
“It has been such a blessing getting to grow along these people, because this was my first television job, but really first big role and I had no idea what I was doing,” Bicondova shared. “These people, even David, have taught me so much, without even knowing it.”
“Well, we pick up in 5.01 after the bridges have been blown… and Jim Gordon and the GCPD have a small area in Gotham where they have created a safe zone,” Stephens explained. “Everyone has their little fiefdoms. the park, where Ivy apparently controls… Jim is trying to keep the people of Gotham safe until the government hopefully comes and rescue them.”
“Penguin, very characteristically of himself — this is Penguins time to rebuild Gotham in his own image and he puts him right in City Hall which is kind of appropriate because he was mayor for a hot second,” Taylor revealed. “In a weird way, he’s a war profiteer. He’s profiting off this chaos. He also controls the ammunition… Anyone who wants to rise up has to come up to him.”
“He is waking up in strange places unsure of how he got there or what has transpired while he was getting himself there. He’s kind of losing his mind, because he can’t figure out what’s happening,” Smith shared. “He’s just hiding behind some books…. He’s taken over the Gotham Library.”
“I read the comics and I got into the backstory and it’s dangerous, sometimes, but there have been beautiful incarnations of Harvey Bullock, though not many… If he’s that dark, you can’t roll with him week after week after week… There has to be some empathetic thing that makes people think you’re human… I alwaus just thought he was incredibly pragmatic,” Logue explained. He added that Jim Gordon has done some “gnarly” things himself, even in comparison to Bullock, so he bucks at the idea that Bullock is the dirty cop.
“If you play that kind of sour note over and over, where do you really have to go? You have to kind of nuance it,” he added.
“I think in stories like this, and also because of the writing… the writing is grounded, but Lucius in particular is the man of common sense,” Chalk said. “He is kind of the audience. You have to have kind a normal, so that people know what crazy is.”
“No, that’s been a great thing… just to give him physicality… That’s been sort of my greatest hook and what I’ve joined the most,” Pertwee shared. He added that fans now see “how much of Alfred is in Bruce.” “So that has been the greatest honors, to play one of the Alfred Pennyworths.”
“I’ve spent more time with this young man [Mazouz] than I have with my own son,” he added with a laugh. “Not giving too many spoilers, I’ve looked back at some of the earlier episodes… and what you see is — there’s just been growing up with him, which is the most extraordinary thing.”
“She has created the Siren as a man-free zone… they can buy their way in with money or what have you… She suffers a devastating loss early in the season, and it sends her down a dark path for a little while,” Stephens revealed. He explained she will be “very mad” at one of the cast members. She will go through another transformation that is “uplifting but incredibly bloody.”
“At the beginning of the season, [Lee] is MIA for a long time… She reenters it and reenter Jim’s life kind of like a meteroite,” he teased. “She changes everything. She’s going through one more transformation before the end of the season.”
“She has a blood debt against Penguin,” he said of Penguin. “It’s interesting thing — by the time you get to five years… you get any three people in a room, and everyone wants to kill everyone in the room.”
“I get a pet!” Taylor revealed. “He’s cute. He’s an English bulldog. I actually should say she. She is playing a he. Her name is Camero and she’s amazing.”
“Like I said before, when he takes control of City Hall and he wants to sort of rebuild Gotham in his image,” he explained. “There is a sort of a dictator style… He’s almost like a despot in this feudal Gotham City that we’ve established.”
“I feel like, if he had a theme song, it would be ‘Man in the Mirror.’ He thinks that his alter ego is back again, and he thinks he’s in a war with himself, and there’s a great relief when he finds out that he’s not crazy but he doesn’t know who’s responsible, so he kind of goes on a quest,” Smith shared.
“Let’s just say Selina always get the crap end of the stick,” Bicondova said.”We find Selina in a very dark place. She’s actually very suicidal and she attempts to end her life in a way, but we find her in a place that we’ve never seen her before and we find her in a state of despair and just the Selina we’ve all known goes completely out the window… but this really lonely, really depressed young woman. Throughout the season, we see her struggle with that.”
“You can be angry and fearful and you can be really depressed or you can be hopeful and loving and completely opposite and Selina goes on the rage path,” she added.
“The thing is, all I know, is the combination of the five season we had before that we develop into the roles that everyone is expecting,” Pertwee said. “I do becomes the Alfred that people know and love… I’m just there for him if he needs me.”
“Bruce and Alfred stay on. Jim is spearheading the green zone. Harvey is around, becasue Harvey has nowhere else to go,” Logue shared. “He’s a very empty man. It’s like these pillars. You have Jim Gordon, and then you have Bruce and Alfred. How do you fight anarchy?”
“The point is that they don’t. The city doesn’t get saved… This show kind of tracks the downward spiral,” Mazouz explained, adding this will lead to the rise of Batman. “The good guys will have to come together… Bruce and Gordon are working very closely together this season.”
“Lucius has been clear from jump. Whatever is in support of Bruce Wayne’s survival… if Bruce had left Gotham, Lucius would have left Gotham,” Chalk explained. “If he wants to protect Gotham, I’m with you. I couldn’t protect your father; I’m going to protect you… I do have time to go off to help GCPD because they’re a bunch of dummies. Bruce is smarter than them.”
“We do see Magpie. She’s awesome,” Stephens said.
“[Jeremiah] has a somewhat deranged girlfriend who dresses in a multi-colored fashion. I wouldn’t describe it as a healthy relationship, but there’s a meeting of minds,” Stephens teased. “She likes rollerskates.”
“You do try to want to parcel some of it out over the various years. For years and years and years,” they wanted to use Bane. “We’d always wanted to do it and we’d always wanted to do in a way that hasn’t been told on screen.” The season will show Bane’s origin, which is tied explicitly with Jim Gordon.
“When Shane [West] comes into play him, there’s a level of authenticity,” he explained, adding that West’s performance will lead audiences to really believe he could become a “‘roided out” rage villain. “He’s awesome, and Alfred has a nice showdown with him.”
“Just between us, we have an altercation and Cat’s involved… but I get my back broken,” Pertwee revealed.
“Bruce is going to meet his first bat,” Mazouz said.
“We’re not getting King Snake, I’m sorry,” Stephens said. “We do have other new characters like Mother and Orphan and Magpie and a couple of other surprises.”
Here’s a look at the trailer featuring the first footage from season 5!
Gotham stars Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock and David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne. The series also stars Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean and Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth.
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