‘Gotham’ Final Season Number of Episodes Expanded

Gotham‘s final season just got a bit bigger.

Fox announced its midseason premiere dates today and, in addition to setting Gotham‘s premiere date as Thursday, January 3, 2019, they also revealed that the fifth and final season of the series will be getting two additional episodes going from 10 to 12.

For fans of the Batman prequel series, this is huge news, but it also means that the series will be able to pack a little bit more into a finale season that is already set to be fast-paced and full of action. Series star David Mazouz, who plays Bruce Wayne, told ComicBook.com during a recent visit to the show’s New York City set that the episodes are crazy action-packed even though at the time the show was only slated for 10.

“Crazy. Yeah. It does, it does ramp up, because you know we kind of fit the meat of 22 episodes into 10 and so you’ll see the episodes are crazy action-packed,” Mazouz told us. “Like you know its kind of sad because I always found these to be kind of sweet moments, but we kind of have slimmed down on the scenes, the kind of more quiet scenes between two characters talking about the events of the episode, Sean and I had a lot of those in the kitchen or in the study. Kind of haven’t had a lot of those because every second is just filled with action, plot moving the story along, getting the characters where they need to go, and I think it will be exhilarating as a viewer to watch. I can’t put any of the scripts down.”

The two extra episodes announced today will likely not have too much of an impact on the pacing of the series — as Mazouz points out the reduction from 22 does make a difference — but it will at least give the show a little more room to tell the rest of the story and pack in as much as possible for the fans who worked so hard for that final season.

“We’ve run out of time, so we might as well throw it in at the end there. In a reasonably well constructed way.” Jim Gordon actor Ben McKenzie said. “I don’t think we’re just throwing things at the wall we’ve created- I think John Stevens and the writers have created a pretty great- not just template in No Man’s Land for sort of all hell to literally and figuratively break loose. But also a plan throughout those 10 episodes to sprinkle in all those things the fans want to see in a way that pays off. A way that doesn’t just seem like lip service that actually feels like it’s part of the 98 episodes we would’ve done in the course of five years.”

Are you excited that Gotham is getting two additional episodes in its final season? Let us know your take in the comments below.

Gotham will return on Thursday, January 3, 2019 on Fox.