‘Gotham’ EP Says Jeremiah Will Be “More Terrifying” Than Jerome

There was a changing of the Valeska guard on Gotham this past week. After multiple seasons of seeing Jerome (Cameron Monaghan) grow increasingly insane, the villain’s reign came to an end, though he corrupted the mind of his twin brother Jeremiah (Also Monaghan) to become an entirely new kind of evil in this place.

These two men share a lot in common. Aside from the fact that they’re identical twins, and they each of some violent tendencies, both were modeled after DC’s most iconic comic villain, the Joker. Still, despite these similarities, don’t expect Jeremiah to become anything like Jerome in the coming episodes.

ComicBook.com had the chance to speak with Gotham executive producer Danny Cannon after last week’s devastating episode, and we asked him what we could expect from Jeremiah going forward. How closely in Jerome’s footsteps would he follow?

“Well, I think the difference between them, there was something nihilistic about Jerome,” Cannon told us. “There’s something nihilistic about Jerome, and chaotic. The idea of bringing chaos to the world and destroying things, and I think the difference with Jeremiah is, he’s a brilliant mind. He’s an engineer by nature, he’s rational, he’s calculated. He still has the same psychotic tendencies now as his brother. Therefore, you have a more lethal, terrifying villain who is going to be a lot smarter than his brother was, and is going to be more calculating.”

It almost seems as if these two brothers represent different versions of the Joker from the comics, seeing as how there are actually three instead of one. Cannon said this idea of multiple Jokers, of the idea being more than the man, was a major influence in the decision to replace Jerome.

“That just spawned the conversation of the idea of it, of the Joker not being a one person, but like I said, it’s a personality,” said Cannon. “It’s a way of thinking. It’s more powerful than just one person. therefore, that sparked the conversation of, well, if it’s the opposite of good, the opposite of Bruce Wayne, is somebody who just wants to destroy, and wants to do it in a chaotic way, then that could be anyone, because you are literally just going the opposite of your main character and take it as far as you can go. I don’t think that’s just one person. I think that is a way of life, it’s an ideology.”

Jeremiah’s evolution into a villain will play out over the last three episodes of the season, leading up to the No Man’s Land arc that will begin in the Season 4 finale next month.

New episodes of Gotham air on Thursday nights at 8pm ET on FOX.