EARLY KNIGHT
Welcome to Wayne’s world…
SEASON: 1 US
BROADCAST: Fox from 22 September UK
BROADCAST: TBC
The Dark Knight may be on a big- screen hiatus until 2016’ s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, but in the meantime fans can meet the young Bruce Wayne and his immortal rogues’ gallery in Gotham. Pitched as an urban- flavoured origin tale for the Batman legend, the series is set to explore the city that made the hero.
As created by executive producers Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, Gotham puts newbie Detective James Gordon ( Ben McKenzie) and rumpled Detective Harvey Bullock ( Donal Logue) at the centre of the story with a freshly orphaned Master Wayne ( David Mazouz) mourning in the periphery. It’s an inspired angle to recasting the Batman origin story but it’s one that didn’t come to Heller until he got some unexpected inspiration.
“Initially, I was reluctant to do a superhero series, not because I don’t like them but I don’t know how to do people with superpowers because as soon as a superhero walks on- screen then the human beings are diminished,” Heller tells SFX. “Then when they walk out of frame, you are waiting for the superhero to come back. So it was that logistical problem I was looking at. It was my 12- year- old son who suggested Commissioner Gordon as a DC character who doesn’t have superpowers and it got me thinking. The nut of the idea was ‘ What if Gordon was the cop who originally investigated the Wayne murders?’ It would give you a starting point and allow you to tell that saga from a much earlier point without ever having to get into a cape and cowl or superpowers situation. It soon became clear it gave us the chance to do the origin stories of all of these characters in a great way.”
Going back also allows the creators a creative freedom that isn’t slavishly beholden to any of the previous screen or comic book versions. Executive producer Danny Cannon explains that their approach is two- fold. “The world needs to be relatable and credible in order for the drama to work but at the same time it’s a dream state. It’s kind of my fantasy of what the city would be. The fun of it was when I first visited New York, I had in my mind that it’s The French Connection, it’s Dog Day Afternoon, it’s The Warriors. I held onto that romanticism and that dream state for what we wanted [ the city] to be as that’s a beautiful hotbed for drama.”
Cannon says that Gotham is also a fullfledged character in the series, not just a backdrop. “We are spending a lot of time in the city trying to make it as real as we can. We are going down the alleyways and in the back doorways and up the stairwells in places that nobody has gone before. The people who we are finding there are sometimes villains we are creating and other times they are the very early origins of somebody you may know from the comic book and that’s a beautiful thing.”
The central engine of the series is the clash between new Gotham PD partners: the nonjaded Jim Gordon and the slightly corrupted Harvey Bullock. Ben McKenzie says Gordon is “the last good man in a city that is falling apart. The reference is 1970s New York where nothing is really quite working and everyone is on the take. The judges, politicians and cops are corrupt so there are all these villains around, or potential villains. Jim is a rookie when we meet him. He’s a war vet so he has a real sense of moral authority. Harvey does not. Harvey knows how the city works, greases some palms and how to shake down some folks if he needs to. They both have a grudging respect for each other but at the same time they will often be at serious odds.” Logue adds that the series feels like Chinatown. “Jim Gordon is really idealistic but is partnering up with a guy who has been beat down, but maybe he has a bit of goodness deep down in him. Jim has to bring that out.”