Gotham Season 4 to Take Cues From Batman: The Long Halloween & Batman: Year One

When Gotham returns to Fox for season 4 on Thursday, September 28, viewers may just find themselves preparing to finally see the debut of Batman and last weekend at Gotham’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, producer and writer John Stephens hinted that the season will take cues from two major Batman stories in comics.

At the panel, Stephens indicated that the first half of season 4 will be inspired by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween while the second half will draw inspiration from Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One. Stephens indicated that the season will not be direct adaptations, but rather loose interpretations of the classic comic book stories.

First published between 1996 and 1997, The Long Halloween portrayed Batman being confronted with a serial killer named Holiday who claims a victim once a month. As the story is early in Batman’s career and includes many of the characters already appearing in some form on the show—such as Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, Catwoman and the Penguin—the story would make a good fit for the show, especially if Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) is the joker, as many fans suspect.

Meanwhile Batman: Year One is a retelling of Bruce’s transformation into Batman. The 1987 story previously inspired portions of Christopher Nolan’s 2005 Batman Begins as well as the 2011 animated film, Batman: Year One.

You can read a synopsis of season four of Gotham below.

Season Four of GOTHAM will witness the emergence of the criminal landscape for which Gotham City is best known, with JIM GORDON (Ben McKenzie) and HARVEY BULLOCK (Donal Logue) at the forefront of the fight against the most depraved and unhinged villains. While Gotham City fights for normalcy, a new hero will rise, as BRUCE WAYNE (David Mazouz) begins to assume responsibility for the city’s well-being.

Gotham stars Ben McKenzie as Detective James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Morena Baccarin as Leslie Thompkins, Sean Pertwee as Alfred, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle/the future Catwoman, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma/the future Riddler, Jessica Lucas as TabithaGalavan, Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox, Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean, Maggie Geha as the future Poison Ivy, Michael Chiklis as Detective Nathaniel Barnes, Benedict Samuel as Mad Hatter.

MORE GOTHAM: Gotham Season 4 Premiere Date Announced / SDCC 2017Gotham Panel: Live Recap / Gotham Season 4 Poster Teases Bruce Wayne’sYoung Batman