Gotham EP Reveals The Real Reason Poison Ivy Was Aged

Despite Clare Foley giving a creepily good performance as a young Ivy Pepper/Poison Ivy in the limited screen time she had in the first two seasons of Gotham, the showrunners decided they wanted to show off the character’s seductive charm in the third season, so they aged-up Ivy and replaced Foley with the 28-year-old actress Maggie Geha.

“We made the change for two reasons: The character Ivy in the comics, one of her greatest powers is the power of seduction,” executive producer Ken Woodruff told The Hollywood Reporter. “Everyone was much more comfortable with that with an older actress as opposed to a teenager. We want to explore that classic, canonical power of Ivy. And we didn’t just make her older with that attack. When she’s changed and transformed, there’s a real character change as well. She’ll still have some of the same traits, but she’ll be much darker, more manipulative than the Ivy we’ve seen so far. There’s a more evil quality to her as well. It’s more than just physical.”

Geha shared her thoughts on Ivy’s transformation. “Ivy has been reborn, and she is completely different, on the inside as well as out,” she told TV Guide, which you can view in the video above. “Ivy’s main passion in life is plants and nature. She doesn’t have any real regard for people. She still has a little bit of the Little Ivy in her; she’s not completely-completely changed. I think that Little Ivy is sort of relishing in the physical transformation and realizing all the power that she now has and what she can do to people and how she can manipulate people. She’s definitely transforming into a darker version of herself.”

Fish Mooney (guest star Jada Pinkett Smith) takes matters into her own hands to locate Hugo Strange (guest star BD Wong), forcing Gordon to reluctantly team up with journalist Valerie Vale (guest star Jamie Chung) to find her. Penguin rises in popularity after criticizing the work of the GCPD and Bruce’s investigation of the Court of Owls is compromised. Meanwhile, Ivy Pepper (Maggie Geha) is reintroduced into Gotham city.

The 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, and Michael Chiklis as Detective Nathaniel Barnes.

The guest cast includes Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, BD Wong as Hugo Strange, Jamie Chung as Valerie Vale, Nicholas Calhoun as Nick, and Leslie Hendrix as Kathryn.

“Mad City: Burn The Witch…” episode of Gotham will air Monday, September 26 at 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT on FOX.