‘Gotham’ Star David Mazouz Promises Dark and Fast-Paced Final Season

Young Bruce Wayne star David Mazouz is teasing a dark and character-driven final season of Gotham that will "finally" see the emergence of fully-formed characters well-known to fans of the DC comic books.

"Last season ended with the government showing its back to Gotham. It's a dark island, little electricity, food, ammo, all that kind of stuff — this kind of situation brings out kind of the [characteristics] of all the characters that we know and it's going to be very character-driven this year, and the characters are finally gonna become who we know them as," Mazouz told EW during San Diego Comic-Con.

"It's really fast-paced, it's really real, it feels really dark and — I don't want to give away too much, but it's really good. It's a really good season."

Now a tattered No Man's Land, Gotham's dire dilemma means the almost-hopeless city needs a savior more than ever. "It does. It needs a bat," Mazouz said.

As first reported by ComicBook.com in May, the fifth and final season of the hit series will draw from the Batman: Zero Year comic book event, detailing a younger Bruce Wayne's first experiences as a costumed vigilante.

"We are gonna get to see him make the final steps [as Batman]," executive producer John Stephens told ComicBook.com. "There are not going to be any steps for Bruce Wayne to take to becoming Batman that don't get taken this season. We're gonna see him go all the way."

The now 17-year-old star's personal journey and five-year passage towards suiting up as Gotham's self-appointed Dark Knight mirrors that of Bruce's, who heads into what will become a decades-long career as a costumed and caped crusader.

"David and Bruce are both 18 this year and that's really that last cusp age when someone is stepping from being a boy to a man. And so all those things that a young man would be going through at that time — searching for his independence, carving out the idea of his identity, those questions of when he's gonna leave home again for the first time, you know? All those things we could almost dramatize and tell those stories in a variety of different plot ways," Stephens said.

"And No Man's Land actually provides a really nice crucible for us to put Bruce under a great deal of stress so he has to make those choices."

Gotham Season Five returns in January on FOX.