Latest trailer for Gotham puts the spotlight on some of Batman’s greatest villains

By Rick Marshall June 19, 2014

city ticking bomb new gotham trailer — Image used with permission by copyright holder

We got our first trailer for the upcoming Gotham television series last month, and things have been rolling along ever since then with the show that offers an early look at the city that turned Bruce Wayne into Batman.

Instead of focusing on series protagonist James Gordon (as portrayed by Ben McKenzie), the latest preview for the show puts the spotlight on the villains that challenge Gordon and his partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue). Alternating between shots of The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Catwoman (Camren Bicondova), the trailer offers a brief look into the eyes — and destinies — of two of Batman’s most iconic rogues and a new villain created for the series.

“How will a little girl, a low-level thug, [and] a businesswoman become the most dangerous villains around?” McKenzie is heard asking over footage of Catwoman, The Penguin, and Fish Mooney. “Simple answer: They all got their start in this city.”

Gotham premieres this fall with a 16-episode season on Fox. Here’s the official synopsis for the series:

Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world’s greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon’s story and his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker. GOTHAM is an origin story of the great DC Comics super villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told. From executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (“The Mentalist,” “Rome”), GOTHAM follows one cop’s rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering on the edge of evil and chronicles the birth of one of the most popular super heroes of our time.

You can check out the “Villains” trailer below:

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Entertainment

Batman and the city: depictions of Gotham from The Dark Knight to Gotham Knights

Batman overlooking the neon lights of Gotham in Arkham Knight.

With the enticing expansion of Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson's The Batman universe, it's once again an exciting time for the character in the theatrical space, and the recent release of WB Games Montréal's Gotham Knights has once again highlighted how the city itself is such an important backdrop. As cheesy as it might be to say, Gotham City truly helps elevate the Dark Knight's tales when treated as a metaphorical character of his world.

The gloomy, crime-noir city that seems perpetually dark and stormy is the foundation that serves Batman's wider mythos, whether it's in Christopher Nolan's standard-setting The Dark Knight trilogy or Paul Dini and Bruce Timm's hallowed Batman: The Animated Series. And even though Gotham is often characterized by such moody adjectives, there have still been several attractive iterations of it across mediums to serve their aforementioned and respective functions.
From the page to the big screen

Entertainment

Underrated Batman villains that should be in Caped Crusader

Batman holding his cape under the moonlight in Caped Crusader key art.

The Batman has successfully ushered in a new age for the Dark Knight theatrically, but the brooding superhero is poised to expand his on-screen presence elsewhere. Under the producing capacity of The Batman's Matt Reeves, J. J. Abrams, Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm, and showrunner Ed Brubaker, DC will try to catch lightning in a bottle twice in the animated space with Batman: Caped Crusader.

The HBO Max series will attempt to go bolder than what the revered BTAS did in the '90s, and with that demands a strong lineup of villains. Batman has perhaps the greatest rogues' gallery in comics, but Brubaker should make the most out of the hero's toybox of underrated villains from his comic book mythos.
Black Mask

Entertainment

The Batman: Villains we could see in HBO’s Arkham spinoff

Split image of The Batman and Arkham Asylum in the comics

DC Films and Warner Bros. Pictures' The Batman has garnered a strong critical reception and box office run, and now the world of Gotham City that Matt Reeves is putting together is already expanding beyond the planned trilogy of movies. HBO has already given showrunner Lauren LeFranc's (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chuck) The Penguin limited series the green light for HBO Max, but Reeves also confirmed that an Arkham Asylum-inspired spinoff is also in the works.

This concept opens an exciting door for live-action Batman-related projects, especially since Reeves mentioned in an interview with The Cyber Nerds that he wanted to embrace the eerie "house of horrors" atmosphere that the notorious asylum has. Using live-action spinoffs in a shared-universe format is a smart way to venture the IP into genres that would typically not work in a theatrical setting, which could open up a wealth of possibilities for fleshing out the Dark Knight's on-screen rogues' gallery.