EXCLUSIVE: Gotham Casts Michael Bowen as Matches Malone

When we heard Silver mention the name "M. Malone" as who she was told killed Bruce Wayne's parents, our immediate conclusion was that the M stood for "Matches." We were right.

Michael Bowen, best known as Uncle Jack on Breaking Bad (also Lost, multiple Quentin Tarantino films), has been cast in the role of Patrick "Matches" Malone on Gotham, set to debut in the second half of season two, ComicBook.com can exclusively report. The character description doesn't give us too much to go on, but does offer a tiny bit of insight into him.

"One of Gotham's deadliest killers, Matches Malone is a weathered, philosophical hitman who may be the triggerman behind one of the most important crimes in Gotham's history."

Matches Malone in the pages of DC Comics is a small-time crook who really is just a product of Gotham City, committing crimes simply to get by. When he dies, Batman covers the death up, and assumes the identity of Matches when he needs to go undercover amongst Gotham's criminal element. He's even been thrown in prison (on purpose) as Matches Malone before.

Obviously, Gotham is taking some considerable liberties here with the character, especially if he really is Thomas and Martha Wayne's killer. It's hard to imagine Bruce ever using their killer's identity in the future (and of course, as he's nearly five decades younger, pretty hard to pull off), as well. Going into the second half of the season dubbed "Rise of the Villains," it's easy to see that Matches will be not just an important part of Gotham's story, but certainly of Bruce's as well.

Gotham airs Monday nights at 8pm on Fox. After tonight's mid-season finale, the show returns February 29, 2016 with a second run of 11 episodes for Season 2.