Gotham: The Riddler Will Struggle With An Identity Crisis In Season 4

The biggest question for the Riddler to solve when Gotham returns when may be that of his own identity.

After being put on ice by Cobblepot and Mr. Freeze, Nygma will have to find a new set of skills if he hopes to survive in Gotham City.

“Season four, for me, is going to…we play a lot with identity crisis, crises, with Ed and this is another form of identity crisis,” Cory Michael Smith tells ComicBook.com “He doesn’t have his computation skills and his intelligence, and so what does that mean now?”

Smith laments that he didn’t get to go full supervillain as the Riddler for a longer span of time.

“I got so close,” he says. “I got a sparkly green suit. I got to be the Riddler for a couple episodes. I got to twirl a sword…and now it’s just back to a sort of physically and mentally inept Ed.”

However, Smith is still looking forward to getting to explore a different side of Nygma in Gotham‘s fourth season.

“I’m excited because I think some of the shrewdness and ruthlessness that Ed learned to practice by being around Oswald, it’s just not going to work for him anymore,” Smith says. “So it’s kind of exciting. He gets to find a new version of himself, and I think it opens the door for some comedy, which I’m excited about.”

Nygma’s search for a new identity begins when Gotham returns for its fourth season on Fox on Sept. 21.

Before there was Batman, there was GOTHAM.

With a reputation synonymous with law and order, Commissioner James Gordon is one of the crime world’s greatest foes. Everyone knows the name. But what is known of Gordon’s rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? And what did it take to navigate the layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains — the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker?

Gotham is the origin story of the great DC Comics Super-Villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told. From executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (The Mentalist, Rome), this one-hour drama follows one cop’s rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering on the edge of evil and chronicles the genesis of one of the most popular super heroes of our time.

Gotham was developed by Bruno Heller and stars Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Camren Bicondova as Selina “Cat” Kyle, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma/Riddler, Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean/Cyrus Gold, Morena Baccarin as Leslie “Lee” Tompkins, Nicholas D’Agosto as Harvey Dent, Jessica Lucas as Tabitha Galavan, and Michael Chiklis as Nathaniel Barnes/The Executioner.