GOTHAM at TCA: Live-Blog

GOTHAM is paneling at the Television Critics Association for its final year, with stars Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Erin Richards, Cory Michael Smith, Robin Lord Taylor, David Mazouz, Camren Bicondonva, and Cameron Monaghan, plus executive producers John Stephens and Danny Cannon on hand to answer burning questions.

Follow along for a live-blog of what they tease…

1:05 PM: The finale will air on April 25. Fox is kicking off the panel with a sizzle reel of what’s come so far and what’s ahead. Included in the footage? Batman, ten years in the future.

1:08 PM: Will it be Mazouz as the final Batman in the suit at the end? Stephens says yes and no. The Batman suit is for someone who is 6’4, but it’s Mazouz’s face and voice. 

And will Monaghan be the Joker? “Am I going to be the who?” Monaghan jokes. “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.”

Stephens says if he isn’t, he’ll provide inspiration for whomever is. “Cameron may not be the Joker, but he’s my favorite Joker of all out,” Logue says.

1:11 PM: “The great advantage of knowing that you’re ending is you can throw it all out there,” McKenzie says of the final season being bonkers. “We were never really models of restraint,” Stephens adds.

There were iconic moments and relationships that they tackled, because if they didn’t do it now, it wasn’t going to happen, McKenzie says.

1:13 PM: Killer Croc was a character they wanted to tackle from the comics that they didn’t get to. But there was someone later in the season who isn’t quite there, but close enough for them.

Smith wanted Taylor to have an umbrella and himself to have a cane so they could have a fight. It didn’t happen, though.

1:15 PM: There’s something for Barbara that comes up in this week’s episode…Richards teases it’ll come into play with the ten-year flashforward.

1:16 PM: Mazouz is back to school for the first time since seventh grade—he jokes he’s so bored now. “The one thing I learned from Bruce Wayne, which is the best message you can take to heart, is you can do anything if you set your mind to it,” Mazouz says. Bruce starts off as a rich boy in an alley, he says. We saw how he dealt with it. He used that mindset to help get over not wanting to get a shot in real-life.

1:20 PM: “I think it’s pretty fair to say they’re copying us,” McKenzie says of the ARROWverse shows incorporating a lot of GOTHAM-like elements. But Cannon says DC is good about regulating things.

1:21 PM: “I thought Erin did such an amazing job—the transformation of Barbara Kean was so incredible over the five seasons,” Logue says. He calls her a “force of nature.” Stephens says they were inspired by Richards’ energy, which led to her becoming more than just Jim’s girlfriend.

1:23 PM: Will we see a fully-realized version of Catwoman in the ten-year flashforward? “Yes, you will,” Bicondova says.

1:24 PM: Smith notes many of the actors never read a script before they signed their contracts for the show. “We were constantly reinventing and rebuilding ourselves,” Smith says. “It felt like I got to play five characters.”

Stephens credits Smith with pointing out when The Riddler got his name, it wasn’t exactly what the actor envisioned. Stephens listened, and the duo collaborated on making it work.

“I never expected the writers would be willing to work with us,” Taylor adds. The actors were able to bring things into the characters and show.

1:29 PM: What’s going on with Jim and Barbara in the final few episodes? McKenzie says they can’t say too much. There were certain things they wanted to do that were “only possible when we had a deadline,” he says. Richards says it was important for Barbara’s story to have some redemption; she says it’s a “beautiful” way for her character and for Barbara/Jim to end.

“There is no hero or villain, at the end of the day,” McKenzie says, of the blurred lines between the good/bad characters.

1:30 PM: “Violence is only bad when you desensitize yourself,” Cannon says. He says it’s a real theatrical, operatic violence—they treat it as an “other-worldly” element.

McKenzie points to the episode he wrote where Bruce lost his young friend—via a throat slash—as a memorable violent moment. “What’s important more than the violence is what Bruce is going through…I saw very clearly how violence can be used,” he says. He points out with network restrictions, often violence is the only way to make points.

Bicondova wanted Selena to have a gun to her head at one point, but they could only do one take of it there; you’re not allowed to show that on network TV.

1:35 PM: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” Taylor says of Nygma and Cobblepot in the future. “It would be foolish to not maintain a connection…because together they can accomplish things that would blow everyone else out of the water.”

“There’s a lot of love in our relationship, and I think it comes across with the characters,” Smith says of working with Taylor, which he cites as one of the top two professional highlights for him.

1:37 PM: How did they age up the characters? “They only had to add one thing to me,” McKenzie says. “I look 40-78,” Logue jokes. And Taylor says he’s the only one who had a fat suit.

1:39 PM: “We’ve all worked on shows where it’s not fun…it’s a lot of fun this show,” Cannon says. Logue credits the costume designers and crew for being able to create a world so specific. Stephens says a number of crew members said they didn’t know how they’d go to another job after this, because they got so much freedom working on the drama; the crew took it upon themselves to keep the integrity of the show.

“We get to be the face of it, but so much work went into it,” Richards adds.

“Even this show can be dark and hateful, [the production] was full of love,” Bicondova concludes.

GOTHAM, Thursdays, 8/7c, Fox

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