Exclusive: ‘Gotham’ EP Explains Why Ivy Was Recast

Last month, Gotham shocked fans by revealing that, when she returned later this season, Ivy Pepper would be played by a completely different actress. Tomorrow People‘s Peyton List has replaced Maggie Geha, marking her the third different actress to take on the role.

The move was quickly surrounded by controversy, as many fans took to Twitter to defend Geha’s portrayal of the character. They wondered what was wrong with the performance Geha was already giving, and why the show felt it needed to go in a different direction.

While speaking with Gotham co-executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt this week, we decided to get to the bottom of the entire situation. What was behind the decision to recast Ivy?

“The change was all based on the idea that she’s continuing to evolve to become more of the Ivy from the comic books and what we really enjoyed,” Wynbrandt explained. “What’s been really cool about her character, and Maggie [Geha] was so great, was you had Clare [Foley] for the first iteration be the child who is trying to find her way in the world. Then when she evolves into the second iteration of Ivy played by Maggie. She is amazing and embodied sort of a fun kind of comic and zany quality to her who then starts to see that she wasn’t being respected so she wanted to do something about that.

“In this third evolution you’re going to see a really self possessed, really scary and driven version of the Ivy character, who is intent on kind of making the world in the image she sees it should be, which is the green world. The world where the plants rule and people are an after thought.”

Ivy will reappear on Gotham in the second half of the season, with List taking the reins as the new version of the character.

Gotham airs on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.