Gotham Knights: Misha Collins Breaks Down Harvey Dent's Transformation in Series Finale

Tuesday night saw the season — and sadly, series — finale of The CW's Gotham Knights and while it was a major turning point for the young vigilantes in their fight against Rebecca March, it was also a big one for Harvey Dent. The penultimate episode last week saw him turn down Rebecca's request that he join her in immortality so she took him hostage in Wayne Tower and now she has a major ultimatum for him. It all leads to a moment that fans of Gotham Knights have been waiting for since the series was announced and now, Misha Collins is opening up about Harvey's big transition as the series concludes.

Warning: spoilers for the series finale of Gotham Knights below.

The episode sees Rebecca make a demand of Harvey: let his "bad' self out in exchange for the code to the bomb Harvey's daughter Duela is strapped to. Duela — and the Knights — go to great lengths to try to avoid Harvey having to give into Rebecca, but Harvey ultimately realizes he has to. He lets his dark side out, but even then, he's not on Rebecca's side. He attacks Rebecca but she gets the upper hand and smashes a vial of acid on his face, disfiguring him. In that moment, Two Face is born. It's a bit of a twist on the origin story for the iconic villain, something Collins spoke about to Deadline.

"This is a story that has been told time and time again, both in the comics and in movies," he said. "The story of Harvey Dent devolving into Two Face is not new, but it's been told in different ways many times. I really loved that we got to delve deeply into his psychology and give Harvey some agency in the decision to unleash Two Face as opposed to it just being how it's been portrayed in the past typically, [which] is that he just comes to a psychic breaking point and cannot contain his alter ego. And what we have done in Gotham Knights is actually made it a conscious decision on Harvey's part. He's unleashing the Two Face character in order to serve what he thinks is the higher good."

Collins also said putting on the makeup for Two Face was fun but took a significant amount of time.

"The prosthetic makeup took about four hours to get on. So, it's nothing to scoff at," he said. "What you see in the final episode is mostly prosthetic. It is augmented with some CGI, and they did an incredible job with that as well, but the plasticity of the real appliance — the fact that it can move with my face — nothing compares to that. Even in this age of AI, you can tell when it's real like that, I think. We listened to podcasts kill time. It was actually kind of fun. I was so excited to be getting to play this DC Universe. villain that the time in the chair flew by."

Gotham Knights Cancelled After One Season

Earlier this month, The CW cancelled Gotham Knights after just one season and shortly after that announcement, series showrunners James Stoteraux and Chad Fiveash took to social media to let fans know that the series was also unable to find a home at another network or streamer despite the best efforts of the studio.

"Thank you for all the kind words and heartfelt support. Since many of you have been asking about the possibility of Gotham Knights finding a new home, we wanted to let you know that, over the last few months, our producing partners at Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Discovery had been working extremely hard to get the show picked up or possibly even moved to a new network," the statement reads. "There is a great deal of love and support for Gotham Knights at the studio, and at The CW as well. Unfortunately, despite all their efforts, The CW wasn't able to renew the show, and the studio wasn't able to find a new home for it. We can assure you all that it wasn't for a lack of trying or a lack of enthusiasm. Even in a time of severe belt-tightening, the studio spent money and resources in the hope of continuing the show. And though they ultimately weren't successful, their efforts deserve our gratitude."

The first season of Gotham Knights will be available to stream on Max on July 28th.