Hugo Strange To Appear On Gotham

Hugo Strange, one of Batman's oldest villains, will appear on Gotham, showrunner Bruno Heller told IGN during a new interview.

"Hugo Strange is going to pop up because we're going to start dealing with how Arkham was created and why Arkham was created in the way that it was so, yeah, absolutely," Heller said. "It's a Season One thing because in our telling of it the way Arkham was created and the why and how is one of the causes of the particular criminal climate in Gotham that allowed Batman to happen. The revolving door of Arkham is both a brilliant narrative device because it allows you to -- you don't have to kill people off, you can just put them in cold storage -- but if you're telling the story from the start you kind of have to explain, 'What the f--k? Why don't you make that place a place people don't escape from?' We're going to explain why it is the way it is and Hugo Strange is a big part of that."

Strange, well-known to fans of the Rocksteady Batman: Arkham... games, is a villain not entirely unlike Dr. Ivo in the Justice League comics (he recently appeared on Arrow), in that he uses psychological and genetic modifications to create "monster men," which he turns against the Dark Knight. At one point hea lso discovered Batman's secret identity. First appearing in early 1940, he is one of Batman's first recurring villains, having preceded both The Joker and Catwoman.

He also noted that Two-Face will appear as an older character, a contemporary of Gordon's rather than Bruce Wayne's -- and that while they wouldn't "lose" characters to Arrow, it's distinctly possible that some characters who appear on Arrow may never appear on Gotham simply because there isn't time to do all of Batman's rogues justice.

"That's a good meta-physical, trans-network question," Heller said. "I don't think it would preclude anything, but I think it would be tough to do cross-overs because the worlds are so different. Like I said, there's so many rich, great characters that we can't get them all in there."