Michael Chiklis Teases Something Really Terrible Happening on Gotham Season 3

When Michael Chiklis came on as the new Gotham City Police Department Captain, Nathaniel Barnes, he probably didn't know just how crazy things would get in his first year. There were conspiracies, traitors in his own ranks, murders and resurrections, and now, after all that, there's a bus full of actual monsters roaming around the city. Does that mean the unflappable, by-the-book Barnes might bend or break?

"Something really terrible is going to happen to him," Chiklis teased about his character to Comicbook.com at San Diego Comic-Con, "and it's going to change him inexorably. So there's some really cool stuff coming up for my guy. It's actually the reason I took the job."

Yes, that means he knew about this twist, planned for season three, "when [he] signed on," something that influenced the way he played the character during season two's trials and tribulations.

"I think it helps, because the actor side of you knows the arc you're creating in the character, without filling in - I didn't know everything, obviously, because they didn't know! But the general trajectory, and how we got there is the interesting part of the ride, right?" Chiklis said. "I knew that I could be a particular kind of man, knowing that I didn't have to worry about it becoming too one note or flat, because I was going to go somewhere. That's the wonderful thing about being in television anyway, because you get to explore a character over the course of many, many hours instead of the context of a two-hour film. There's some really cool stuff coming."

Of course, grounded, grizzled Barnes has to deal with those monsters this season, after seeing someone come back to life last year.

"This is a guy who is a zealot for law and order. He's horrified. It's driving him a little crazy," the actor said. "He's really strident, unyielding, and unbendable, and something's going to break.

Gotham returns to FOX for season three on September 19, 2016.