Gotham Knights: Olivia Rose Keegan Opens Up About “Wild Card” Duela (Exclusive)

Gotham Knights debuted last week on The CW, introducing viewers to a new take on Gotham City and Batman’s lore and this time it’s a lore without Batman. The series debuts with the murder of Bruce Wayne/Batman and the arrest of his adopted son, Turner Hayes and three others for the crime soon after. Among those accused of the unthinkable crime is Duela, aka The Joker’s Daughter. A young criminal operating in Gotham City — as well as being the daughter of the notorious Joker — Duela is unpredictable, but according to Olivia Rose Keegan, who brings Duela to life in Gotham Knights, that wild card status is something she can use to her favor.

“You hit the nail on the head with she’s a wild card,” Keegan recently told ComicBook.com. “I love her so much. She’s definitely a loose cannon. She’s a survivalist. She grew up in the streets of Gotham and learned how to fend for herself at a very young age, sort of born into the lowest sector of the system. She’s also the Joker’s daughter. And she sort of made her way in the world by living up to this predetermined judgement that everyone else has assigned to her and has definitely twisted back to work in her favor or used it to work in her favor,”

“There’s so much humanity to unpack with her,” Keegan continued. “Of course, the absent father. Not only an absent father, but a serial killer father. And we don’t really know what the situation is with her mother yet, but we can go ahead and conclude that it’s not a picture-perfect maternal situation at all. And she’s constantly torn between idolizing her father and the way he shook chaos into this very screwed up Gotham City system and then hating his guts for abandoning her. So, there’s so much going on. But she refuses to be a victim of her circumstances, which is something I love about her.”

And heading into this week’s episode, “Scene of the Crime”, viewers already know a little something else about Duela: she’s pretty smart, too. The end of the series pilot saw Duela realize that the Court of Owls is behind the predicament that she and her fellow fugitives are in, and it seems, at this point, that she’s the only person who really understands how serious everything is. Keegan said that moment is a major lead in for this week’s episode.

“At the end of episode one, she lets everyone know what’s happening and what they’re dealing with. And I don’t know if there’s enough attachment formed between her and all her fellow vigilantes for her to go out of her way to protect them and really make sure that they know,” Keegan said. “It’s kind of like she told them the deal. If they want to believe her and take the smart route they can. And if not, then like I said, she’s a survivalist and knows how to take care of herself.”

Gotham Knights airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.