Grab your bulletproof ponchos and galoshes, because a storm is coming to Gotham City, one in which a whole bunch of dastardly villains are in the earliest stages of bringing justice to its knees. In the preview seen above, viewers are ushered into Gotham’s world in the most immersive way possible, at least through a video clip. It helps if you splash water on your face while you’re watching. Trust me. I'm Batman.
Gotham begins just as Detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) is getting his feet wet as a rookie within the Gotham City Police Department. His first case is one of the most memorable murders in all of fiction: the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne. You may have noticed one of the gunshots that takes them down has also broken your computer screen. Somebody call the cops!
Not really, but that’s one of the ways this trailer earns instant cool points. It eschews the normal video-watching experience by changing up the environment around it; it’s a tactic that has popped up a few times with different projects, but hasn’t yet become the norm for some reason. Maybe it’s too distracting to some people, but I love seeing the video shake with the pounding music, and seeing smoke and water appear around the video’s edges. (Maybe those were young Bruce’s tears.) I was waiting for Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot’s (Robin Lord Taylor) umbrella to poke me in the eye.
Cobblepot is but one of many Gotham citizens who want to take crime into their own hands. We also see Selina “Catwoman” Kyle (Camren Bicondova), Edward “The Riddler" Nygma (Cory Michael Smith), and Ivy “Poison Ivy” Pepper (Clare Foley). There’s a glimpse of Jada Pinkett Smith’s Fish Mooney as well.
On the good guys side of things, we have the gruff-em, scruff-em glory that is Harvey Bullock, played by the always amazing Donal Logue. Other Gothamites will include Bruce’s butler-father Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee), GPD detectives Crispus Allen (Andrew Stewart Jones) and Renee Montoya (Victoria Cartagena) and Captain Sarah Essen (Zabryna Guevara). John Doman will star as the ruthless criminal Carmine Falcone. Check out a more in-depth preview below, which is sadly free from fourth-wall-breaking effects. Again, splash yourself.
As the first live-action Batman-ish series in over 40 years, this one has quite a reputation to live up to, but I’m highly optimistic it’ll do just that. Grab some bat-popcorn and bat-beer for Gotham’s series premiere, which will hit FOX on Monday, September 22, at 8 p.m. ET.
