‘Gotham’: Joker’s Final Version Is a “Nightmare”

Fans who have been watching the final season of Gotham are waiting for two things: the appearance of Batman, and the creation of the Joker. Well, it sounds like Jeremiah Valeska’s final evolution might have happened, but we’ve yet to see the final results.

It remains to be seen if the show will actually refer to the character as “The Joker,” but Gotham executive producer John Stephens made it clear that fans can expect to see a terrifying evolution of the character when he finally shows up.

“We all know the character that some people think he is, some people say he’s not–that he’s supposed to be a precursor to at the very least,” Stephens told Gamespot. “So, when you look at the Joker, and you break down elements of his personality, and you cleave off certain character traits. Some of those character traits we gave to Jerome. Some of those character traits we gave to Jeremiah.

“But, there were still some leftover character traits that we said, we haven’t used these elements yet. Specifically to me, horror or terror. I feel like there are elements of the Joker, some iterations of him, which he’s not just a clown prince of crime, but he’s actually a nightmare. And I feel like… some of those remain to be explored.”

This falls in line with what Stephens told ComicBook.com when we visited the set of Gotham earlier this year.

“One of the themes of the show has always been about the evolution of identity and how fluid it is. And how people can always change themselves from one identity to another. Those obvious examples are obviously like Bruce Wayne, Batman, that view of the world. One of the things we like to do on the show is take that theme and see how it plays out in different fashions with different characters,” said Stephens. “So, especially with Cameron Monaghan’s character, first with Jerome and then to Jeremiah, then from Jeremiah to this new character. Obviously, we were always saying that this character is not the Joker but we were always saying what are different elements of the Joker that we can actually use and bring out and develop? Weighing the way you can look at and say, hey, this character may not be the Joker but we can imagine how this character could have lead to a character like the Joker, down the road somewhere.

“So, to that I want to say, there are some elements, I’d say, of the character of the Joker himself that we see down the road that have not been present so far, either in Jerome or in Jeremiah. But those elements and characters are present in the new iteration of Jeremiah that comes out.”

The final season of Gotham continues this Thursday on FOX.