Gotham's Robin Lord Taylor Addresses Relationship Between Penguin And Riddler
11/13/2016 09:19 pm EST
At Rhode Island Comic Con this past weekend, Gotham star Robin Lord Taylor discussed Penguin's sexuality, explained why his character has romantic feelings for The Riddler, and provided a heartfelt response to those people who aren't happy with Penguin potentially exploring his sexuality with Riddler because that's not part of either characters' canon.
"So, this is why I say he's not gay," Taylor began. "I find him to be a very emotionally-fractured person, emotionally-vulnerable. And after the loss of both his mother and his father — coincidentally both dying in his arms, the only people he ever loved and trusted — the person who was there who gave him respect and really there for him was Edward Nygma. And I truly believe that had it been Barbara, or Tabitha, or Butch... Yes, Butch! I believe that if it had been anyone else that had been there in that same capacity that he had that connection with, regardless if they were male or female, he would've had that same obsession with."
"I also want to address the people who say, 'I have no problem with him being gay or queer or anything; I just have a problem with you guys changing or altering the canon,'" he continued. "And I have to say, that's a bunch of horsesh-t. You can't say that to me if you didn't have the same amount of consternation about Batman '89, where The Joker killed Batman's parents. That is a total departure from the canon characters. You can't tell me unless you were just as upset that in our own show we had Batman and Catwoman growing up together, running around Gotham City. If you weren't equally upset about that, which is changing canon characters, but you come to me and you say to me, 'I'm okay with you being queer, but I'm upset you're changing a canon character.' What you're saying to me is, 'I'm homophobic, and I am afraid of gay people and queer people.' That's exactly what you're saying! So, everyone should really check themselves. Check their privileges and check their prejudices, I would say."
Gordon and Bullock become suspicious of Barnes, and comb through evidence of the murder at Lee and Mario's engagement party. Nygma goes to Penguin when he hasn't heard from Isabella (guest star Chelsea Spack). Meanwhile, Ivy reveals her identity to Selina and Bruce, but quickly leads them to trouble.
The regular cast features Ben McKenzie as Detective James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Morena Baccarin as Leslie Thompkins, Sean Pertwee as Alfred, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle/the future Catwoman, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma/the future Riddler, Jessica Lucas as Tabitha Galavan, Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox, Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean, Maggie Geha as the future Poison Ivy, Michael Chiklis as Detective Nathaniel Barnes, and Benedict Samuel as Mad Hatter.
The guest cast includes James Carpinello as Mario Calvi, Chelsea Spack as Isabella, Jeremy Crutchley as Anton, and Costa Ronin as Luka Volk.
Gotham is based upon DC characters and is produced by Warner Bros. Television. Bruno Heller (The Mentalist, Rome), Danny Cannon (the CSI franchise, Nikita), John Stephens (Gossip Girl) and Ken Woodruff (The Mentalist) serve as executive producers on the series.
The all-new "Mad City: The Executioner" episode of Gotham will air Monday, November 14 at 8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
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