During its first season, Fox’sGothamintroduced fans to a character named Jerome, played byCameron Monaghan, who many assumed was the future version ofThe Joker. However, this eccentric character was killed off early on in the thirdSeason 2episodeThe Last Laugh, and the producers later confirmed that Jerome would eventually inspire the character who would go on to become the real Joker. Since then, there have been rumors that the iconic villain may be a female. Thanks to new photos from this season’s 14th episode,The Ball of Mud and Meannness, we have what may be our first look at this female Joker, played by Lori Petty.
We don’t have confirmation that Lori Petty’s character, who is listed as “Jeri” on the episode’s IMDB page, is in fact The Joker inGotham. However, her outfit and peculiar demeanor seem to indicate that she may actually be this iconic villain. The episode doesn’t air until March 14, but we may not even get confirmation that she’s The Joker in that episode. We’ll have to wait and see.
Series creatorBruno Hellerisn’t ruling out a gender swap for this iconicDC Comicssupervillain. And it might be a good turn consideringJared Letois set to unleash a very terrifying version of the character on the big screen in next August’sSuicide Squad. While Jerome doesn’t appear to be a prime candidate for the Joker mantle any loner, the clown prince of Gotham will be showing up in some form before the series runs its course. Though, who knows when that will be. Here’s what showrunnerBruno Hellerhad to say about a female Joker during an interview in October.
“100% possible. One of the central themes of the DC world is transformation and revelation. Absolutely, those kinds of - I wouldn’t want to call it playing with people’s expectations or gender expectations - but we’ve absolutely considered the possibility of a female Joker, and we haven’t…nothing is too strange or too bizarre or too shocking for us to consider.”
This season’s third episode, The Last Laugh, ended with Jerome’s laughter inspiring a whole city of lowlifes to go on their own killing sprees. It’s possible that Gotham will offer up a whole slew of Joker wannabes to leave audiences guessing. It was said early on, that the ‘real’ Joker might not show up until Season 8 or 9, if the show lasts that long. And he might only emerge asBruce Waynetransformers into Batman.Ben McKenziehas previously stated that won’t happen until the very last episode. While we wait for more details, take a look at these new photos below, and stay tuned for more on this hit series.
