Fox’s increasingly ambitious Batman prequel Gotham is already looking to expand its roster beyond the core villains introduced in the trailers and posters.
We’ve been teased the Joker, and now we could be getting Victor Fries, aka the cold-blooded mad scientist Mr Freeze.
Pilot director (and helmer of 1995’s Judge Dredd, lest we forget) Danny Cannon told Hitflix, “I have a big pitch with Bruno [Heller, showrunner] about the Mr Freeze character, whose origins are uncertain.
“If I can win [executive producer] Geoff Johns over and if I can win Bruno over, then I look forward to the moment where that character can be realised.”
Freeze has a great link to TV in that it was Batman: The Animated Series that completly reinvented the character in the still spectacular 1992 episode ‘Heart Of Ice’ as a more tragic villain, pining for his lost love, instead of the gimmicky ice-themed clown of the Sixties.
Amazingly, both versions of the character with reconciled with dazzling real lightness of touch in Joel Schumacher’s 1997 love letter to Skittles and neon bar lights, Batman & Robin, which thanks to The Dark Knight Rises need no longer be remembered as the worst Batman film ever made.
All of which is merely a tenous excuse to post this:
Gotham begins this autumn on Fox in the US. No UK air date has been announced. You can buy Batman: Year One for £7.69 at Amazon.co.uk and find out more about the comics that inspired the show with new digital magazine Uncanny Comics.
