McKenzie of Southland and OC fame is cast as Gordon in Fox's Gotham

[madmarva]

Ben McKenzie is James Gordon in the the Batman prequel Gotham.


I've seen photos of the guy, but never watched the OC or Southland. I like the idea of the show, but I also understand why many think it will be a flop.

Casting the 10 to 12 year old who will be Bruce will be tough if the show is to truly go up until Bruce puts on the costume. Who knows what the kid will grow up to be at that age. They would be wiser to pick up the story with Bruce in high school and cast a young looing 20-something. Unless the show plans to recast at some point.

[GHVersion12]

It might be interesting to watch, He was good in both the OC and Southland was a great cop show that ended way to soon in my opinion. I think I will wait and watch it before I decide if I like it.

[Operation:Mego]

Ben McKenzie as James Gordon:


Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth:


Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot:


Zabryna Guevara as Captain Essen:


Erin Richards as Barbara Kean:


Donal Logue as Detective Harvey Bullock:

[Operation:Mego]

Character bios:

James Gordon: an idealistic rookie detective for Gotham City Open Police Department’s Homicide Squad, a former college football star and a war hero.

Alfred Pennyworth: a tough-as-nails ex-marine from East London, Pennyworth has loyally served the Wayne family. Now, in the wake of their tragic deaths, he’s fiercely protective of the young Bruce Wayne — the boy who will eventually become Batman.

Oswald Cobblepot: the brains of a chess grandmaster and the morals of a jackal, Cobblepot is a low-level psychopath for gangster Fish Mooney, and hides his sadistic lust for power behind an exquisitely polite demeanor.

Captain Essen: Detective Gordon’s boss at the Gotham City Police Department Homicide Squad, she balances the two worlds of police and politics with a Machiavellian skill that’s as much corporate litigator as cop.

Barbara Kean: a sophisticated emergency doctor, Kean stands by her husband amid the corrupt world of Gotham.

Detective Harvey Bullock: Gordon's rough-around-the-edges partner and mentor.

[Operation:Mego]

Fox president Kevin Reilly described the series as "this operatic soap that has a slightly larger-than-life quality. This is not some adjunct companion series. This is the Batman franchise, just backing it up [in chronology]." He also added that the series will be separate from any "cinematic universe" DC is attempting to build with their films.

[Operation:Mego]

Ben McKenzie posted a picture of some comics on Twitter, including issues of Gotham Central, Frank Millar's acclaimed Batman: Year One origin tale, Long Halloween and its sequel Dark Victory.
"Got some reading to do. #gotham"


Stephen Amell has shown support, tweeting:
"Pretty fired up for @ben_mckenzie. Hop into the DC Universe my friend. The water is warm."

Kevin Alejandro also tweeted his support:
@ben_mckenzie congrats brother!!

[Operation:Mego]

The casting call for an 11-year-old Bruce Wayne has been released:

[Operation:Mego]

Jada Pinkett Smith will play Fish Mooney, a villain described as:

an imposing, hotheaded and notoriously sadistic gangster boss and nightclub owner with street smarts and almost extra-sensory abilities to read people like an open book who is not one to be crossed.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/jada-pinkett-smith-play-villain-fox-batman-drama-160011288.html

[Operation:Mego]

David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne: a young boy who has been sentenced to a solitary life after the tragic murder of his wealthy parents. He is serious and soulful, and relies on the guidance and protection of his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and Det. James Gordon.


Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle: a teenage orphan, street thief and skilled pickpocket who is suspicious and wholly unpredictable.


Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean: the second-in-command to Fish Mooney. Powell has been cast in a recurring role.

[thunderbolt]

this will probably end up being better than the Affleck thing. I guess WB got over the notion that audiences are confused by alternate versions of stuff running concurrently.

[Operation:Mego]

Yeah, that's what I'm just realizing too. But it's actually pretty smart in a way. Those who don't know that much about Bruce before he became Batman will get in-depth background information in time to see the grown-up Bruce in MoS 2 (even if the two aren't in the same continuity, the basic reasoning should still apply as to why he does what he does).

[Operation:Mego]

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.

Growing up in Gotham City's surrounding suburbs, James Gordon romanticized the city as a glamorous and exciting metropolis where his late father once served as a successful district attorney. Now, two weeks into his new job as a Gotham City detective and engaged to his beloved fiancée, Barbara Kean, Gordon is living his dream — even as he hopes to restore the city back to the pure version he remembers it was as a kid.

Brave, honest and ready to prove himself, the newly-minted detective is partnered with the brash, but shrewd police legend Harvey Bullock, as the two stumble upon the city's highest-profile case ever: the murder of local billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne. At the scene of the crime, Gordon meets the sole survivor: the Waynes' hauntingly intense 12-year-old son, Bruce, toward whom the young detective feels an inexplicable kinship. Moved by the boy's profound loss, Gordon vows to catch the killer.

As he navigates the often-underhanded politics of Gotham's criminal justice system, Gordon will confront imposing gang boss Fish Mooney, and many of the characters who will become some of fiction's most renowned, enduring villains, including a teenaged Selina Kyle/the future Catwoman and Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin.

Although the crime drama will follow Gordon's turbulent and singular rise through the Gotham City police department, led by Police Captain Sarah Essen, it also will focus on the unlikely friendship Gordon forms with the young heir to the Wayne fortune, who is being raised by his unflappable butler, Alfred. It is a friendship that will last them all of their lives, playing a crucial role in helping the young boy eventually become the crusader he's destined to be.

[madmarva]

I've always liked Bullock as a character. I'm hopeful about the show. I know it won't follow DC continuity exactly, but DC doesn't follow it's own continuity, either. I'm not going to judge it on that, just if it is entertaining.

Few if any were confused by Smallville and Superman Returns. I think the series and film failed in the areas where they failed and succeeded to the extent they succeeded on their own.

[Operation:Mego]

[Operation:Mego]

Donal Logue, described different aspects of that series' design of Gotham City as exhibiting different sensibilities: "For me, you can step into things that almost feel like the roaring 20s, and then there's this other really kind of heavy Blade Runner vibe floating around. There are elements of it that are completely contemporary and there are pieces of it that are very old-fashioned...There were a couple of examples of modern technology, but maybe an antiquated version of it, that gave me a little bit of sense that it's certainly not the 50s and the 60s...But it's not high tech and it's not futuristic, by any means."