After Ben McKenzie recently alluded to the possibility that the Graysons might appear in Gotham sometime in Season One in an interview with The Daily Beast, showrunner Bruno Heller has confirmed the rumor. Heller said to Entertainment Weekly, “There’s an episode coming up where we learn how Robin’s [Dick Grayson’s] parents got together. We’re going to do a prenatal origin story for Robin down the line. There are no MRIs involved.” In the interview, Heller also commented that Ivy Pepper will return again in this season and we will also see an early version of the Scarecrow as well. However, Heller admitted that there were no plans to introduce Harley Quinn this early in the season.
In a general comment about the introduction of new characters (especially villains), Heller said, “You can’t just keep pumping these characters into the show in a comic book sort of way, because you get the Super Friends effect—which isn’t a bad effect, but then you have spaceships and need to go underwater and get wacky villains and the rest of it. You have to work as a character piece first. First it has to be real. We front-loaded [the show with iconic characters], which we had to do, both for story purposes and marketing purposes. We had to let people know it’s not just a hum-drum police procedural, it’s about these larger than life characters. If you do that you can’t just say, ‘Here’s one larger-than-life character, now wait for next season.’ Once we introduced those initial characters—Penguin, Riddler, Ivy, Selina—then we’ve slowed down with those aspects and we’re bringing in those iconic D.C characters in a much more measured way, which was always the intention. You have to have that amount of spice in the show to make it pop and different. Once the wheels are turning, it’s much easier to bring those characters in in subtle, organic ways. That’s the plan, anyway.”
The midseason finale for Gotham airs next Monday on Fox.
