After coming back to life, wearing his own face like a mask and putting on a carnival for Bruce Wayne, Jerome had Gotham fans pretty convinced that he was going to eventually become the Joker. Audiences have just been waiting for someone on the show to actually call him by the iconic name.
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Unfortunately, much to the heartbreak of every Gotham fan around, Jerome won’t ever be the Joker we want him to be.
While speaking exclusively with ComicBook.com, Gotham co-executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt revealed that, while Jerome has set the groundwork for someone to eventually become the Joker, the fan-favorite character is merely just a tribute
“Obviously Jerome is our homage,” Wynbrandt told us. “He’s obviously not the Joker himself, although we clearly seems to be the impetus that eventually creates the Joker. The more that we see him, the more he carves out his own path I’d say. I wouldn’t say he becomes more the Joker, but the Jerome character continues to evolve.”
If we’re being honest, that is a bit of a let down, considering how well Cameron Monaghan has been playing the character. However, as Wynbrandt continued, his reasoning for keeping Jerome and Joker separate started to make sense. In the minds of the Gotham writers, it’s all out of respect for the incredible character the Joker is, and the passion of the fans that love the comics.
“This is a show about origin. last year we paid homage to one of our favorite Batman stories, ‘The Killing Joke,’” the producer said. “I think there’s definitely stuff within the canon that we as a room are more willing to be nimble with and more willing to go a different direction than the cannon. For instance, the Penguin/Nygma love story. When it comes to Joker, he’s so iconic to that batman character that it feels like we don’t want to get to joker ever. Jerome feels like he is that origin of that.
“I think we all tried to honor that as we moved forward with this character while we know in the hearts of our fans, he represents. The Joker, In our hearts, he is his own character. We really tried to think about that and stay true to that. Obviously Cameron [Monaghan], he’s just embodied the character in such an incredible way. I think that’s what makes him so exciting is that he’s not the Joker. He is Jerome.”
He’s not the Joker, he’s Jerome, and that’s something worth celebrating.
Gotham airs on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
