‘Gotham’ Season 5 Will Begin With Substantial Time Jump

When Gotham‘s fourth season ended in such a destructive fashion, bringing the city into utter chaos and creating No Man’s Land, many fans assumed that there could be a time jump leading into the upcoming final season. Now, a few months away from the Season 5 premiere, those theories have been turned into facts.

Ahead of this weekend’s New York Comic Con, where Gotham will hold a panel for the final time, ComicBook.com had the chance to visit the show’s set in the Big Apple, and learn all about the new season. While touring the various sets and hearing from the creative minds who put them together, we were given a definitive timeline for the start of Season 5.

The season premiere, which will air sometime in early 2019, will take place 87 days, nearly three months after the events of “A Dark Knight: No Man’s Land,” the Season 4 finale. This gives the city a chance to really exist within the chaos that was created when Jeremiah destroyed the bridges and turned control of Gotham over to its many villains. The premiere will then include another time jump in the form of a flash-forward, 391 days after the onset of No Man’s Land.

When Season 4 ended, Gotham City was in absolute shambles. Most of its citizens had evacuated, leaving the likes of Penguin, Barbara, Freeze, and several others to take over various neighborhoods. Order and government were tossed away in favor of several criminal regimes. Only Bruce, Gordon, Harvey, and Lucius stayed behind to try and restore Gotham to what it once was.

A time jump of multiple months months works in several ways. First of all, it represents the actual time between seasons, given the delay and shortened order for the final installment. Secondly, this gives the show a chance to really explore the chaos that the city will fall into. Instead of just pretending that Penguin and the other villains took suddenly started running the show, these characters will have had significant time to operate in this environment. With that kind of time, several changes can be made off-screen to help push the narrative forward.

Are you excited for Gotham Season 5 to finally arrive? What do you think of the upcoming time jump? Let us know in the comments!

*Update* This article initially reported that the time jump in Gotham‘s Season 5 premiere would be eight months. After clarifying FOX, the piece was edited to reflect the two different time jumps in the premiere, one spanning 87 days, and the other 391 days.