SDCC 2017: ‘Gotham’ Season 4 Teaser Released, Exec Producer Discusses Harley Quinn and Professor Pyg

While DC Comics and DC Films had a great day yesterday, we cannot forget about DC TV. The CW shows enjoyed a great deal of attention yesterday, but so did Gotham.

Yesterday, the Gotham panel took place and we got a few interesting bits from executive producer John Stephens regarding a few characters.

It seems that everybody, including the cast expected Harley Quinn to appear in the season 3 finale. Alas, she did not and according to Stephens, she won’t… ever.

“It was my fault. I had thought I had said and I might have not said it: We’ll see a Harley Quinn-esque character. Because in our mind, Barbara was taking on a lot of the ethos and spirit of Harley Quinn, you know, her love of anarchy and violence. All those things that make Harley, Harley in many ways, we were trying to put into Barbara. So I thought that she was becoming a Harley Quinn-esque character. But we’re never going to see Harley Quinn. Sorry about that.”

It looks like, they were intending to turn her into Harley and based on Babs’ direction, it was more than obvious. However, it seems like something changed in the writers room and they decided against it. I understand that it’s upsetting for most Harley fans, but in the end, we have a massive rogues gallery to contend with already.

And it’s definitely growing, as Stephens also announced Professor Pyg, the mad surgeon obsessed with mutilating his victims into perfection, will be making an appearance in season 4.

“For this year, we’re bringing in one of my favorite newer villains. This might be the first time I’m saying this… because we’re bringing in Professor Pyg this year. And I’ve always loved Pyg because he’s just so demented and strange and gross and terrifying and funny. So, this year, I was like ‘Well, our show is pretty violent and graphic, how can it get more violent and graphic?’ I think Pyg is, maybe because he’s a newer character, feels more current to me in some ways. He doesn’t have some of the baggage of like a character from the ’60s might have where you have to like revitalize in a way. Pyg you can just bring in and he scares everybody.”

One of the few strengths of this show is their ability to create a truly deranged and fearsome psychopath. Therefore, using Professor Pyg just seems like a match made in heaven. Thus far, we’ve only seen Professor Pyg in the animated series Beware the Batman and the 2015 video game, Batman: Arkham Knight. This will be the first live-action incarnation of Pyg and I’m getting chills just thinking about him.

And this is moment you’ve been waiting for, Gotham fans. The season 4 teaser. It’s a very long video, as it recaps the events of season 3 in the first 4 minutes. Don’t fret, because we do get new footage towards the end. If you don’t need the refresher, skip to around 4:20 and you will see the start of the teaser.

Check it out below:

After a gestation period of 2 seasons, we’re FINALLY getting the Scarecrow and that’s what provided the most hype for me. He’s in full costume and he’s wielding gas. It’s exactly what comic book fans wanted.

Granted, it was great seeing Bruce and Selena becoming the badass characters that we love, but you can’t shake that great ending. The only great disappointment I have in this teaser is that we didn’t see Butch aka Solomon Grundy.

Oh, and Babs is back. However, considering how Gotham has fully embraced their comic book side, it’s pretty clear the bigger characters won’t got so easily… or at all.

What do you think?

Gotham season 4 premieres on Fox on Thursday, September 28th at 8PM EST.




Related posts

Review: Harley Quinn #45

Michael Biehn Almost Played Batman in ’89’

Review: Birds of Prey #15