Gotham TV Series: Five Batman Villains We Want To See

So, we may be jumping the gun here a bit, considering the Gotham TV series pilot has yet to air, let alone be picked up for a full series run. But it's hard not to get a little excited after hearing a Fox executive say that Batman villains would definitely be a part of the show, along with a young Bruce Wayne. With the biggest villains already confirmed – The Joker, the Penguin, The Riddler, and Catwoman – we took the time to list some of the unnamed villains we would most like to see show up in Gotham, should it have an extended run. We tried to keep in mind the technical and budget limitations of  a network television show when making this list, as well as the proposed crime drama atmosphere the show is going for, which is why you won't find villains with showy superpowers on the list (sorry Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy). There are still plenty of great villains that work within all of those parameters though. Here are five of them.

5. Calendar Man - Julian Gregory Day, a.k.a. Calendar Man, is hardly the most popular or iconic Batman villain. Some would pass him over as a simple gimmick villain, and they'd be pretty justified. They should remember, though, that Mr. Freeze was thought of the same way until Bruce Timm and Paul Dini came along and reinvented the character. Now, Freeze is considered one of most complex characters in Batman's entire rogue's gallery. Calendar Man could get the same treatment in Gotham. He's never going to be a popular enough character to be used in the movies, but he's exactly the kind of demented serial killer that television audiences love. The TV series is a great chance to turn this D-list villain into something more.

4. Doctor Hurt - Okay, okay, hear me out on this one. I realize that Doctor Hurt is a pretty new villain for a character that already has more villains than he knows what to do with, having been introduced in Grant Morrison's only recently concluded (and absolutely awesome) run. He would require a lot of modification to his backstory to fit into pre-Batman Gotham City, but that shouldn't be too hard given how vague Morrison was about it in the first place, and he could be perfect for the series in a thematic sense. In Morrison's run, Hurt impersonates Thomas Wayne, sullying the Wayne family name, marking them as Satanists and hedonists, until Batman uncovers the truth and stops him. That is a storyline I would love to see investigated by James Gordon while a young Bruce Wayne is still powerless to do anything about it. Thomas Wayne, back from the dead, reclaiming custody of his son while the boy is the only one that realizes he's a fraud? Gordon as the only person who believes and can save the child? Yes, please. Morrison also hinted that Hurt could be the actual devil himself, a fact that the writers could ignore or use to slyly introduce a supernatural element to the show in later seasons.

3. Black Mask - If the Penguin ends up being the resident crime boss in Gotham, which has been his role in Batman comics for some time now, then he is going to need a challenger to contend with. Black Mask is that challenger. Angry, violent, sadistic, and just plain scary at times, Black Mask is a character that has been overlooked by the feature films but has had great roles in both the animated feature Batman: Under the Red Hood and in the video game Batman: Arkham Origins. Unfortunately, both of those stories used him as a fall guy to make other characters look tough. Get the right actor to breathe some life into this character, and you've got a mean big bad that can carry at least one full season of the show, if not more.

2. Harley Quinn - Harley Quinn just may be the most popular Batman character to not make an appearance on the big screen. That's understandable, since the character is so attached to the Joker that you can't really expect her to carry a movie as a solo villain, and Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight didn't exactly lend itself to having a spunky girlfriend hanging around. The Joker is already said to be appearing in Gotham, so why not use this opportunity to bring Harley to life in live action as well? She was popular enough in Batman: The Animated Series to bring her into the comic book universe, and she's been side-by-side with the Joker since the beginning of the Arkham video game franchise. Plus, there's already one awesome actress who's said she'd be willing to sell her child for the chance to play the part. Let's make it happen.

1. James Gordon, Jr. - What better antagonist for a show about Jim Gordon than his very own sociopath of a son. He's not the kind of costumed psychopath that mostly gets associated with Gotham City, but that's part of what makes him so terrifying. Don't believe me? Read Batman: The Black Mirror, you'll change your mind. Depending on how young Jim Gordon is in the series, it may be a couple of seasons before we can see little James develop into a proper killer. On the other hand, Gordon watching as his son displays more and more sociopathic tendencies, all the while trying to deny the hallmark signs that he knows so well, is the perfect idea for a multi-season, slow burn storyline that finally erupts around the time little James comes of age. The pilot for the Gotham TV series was picked up by Fox and is currently in the casting phase of development.