Gotham will get a new Poison Ivy in the form of actress Peyton List.
This will mark the third actress to play the same character in the show. At first, Ivy Pepper/Poison Ivy was played by young actress Clare Foley. In the beginning of season 3, she was succeeded by Maggie Geha.
The Odd Journey of Poison Ivy
Ivy’s character backstory is developing into one of the stranger and more convoluted ones on Gotham. Initially, she was a kid named Ivy Pepper who was similar age to Bruce Wayne. When she became orphaned, she was renamed to the more comics-accurate Pamela and then ran away from her foster family.
However, due to odd accelerated-aging powers of Fish Mooney’s henchman Marv, Ivy turned into an adult portrayed by Geha. Most recently in season 4’s “Fear the Reaper”, Ivy steals some magic potions from an old man and drinks them all (!). This causes her to transform again into Peyton List.
As weird as that sounds, the producers on Gotham apparently have a plan for Poison Ivy. In a statement released, they said:
“In the continuing evolution of Poison Ivy’s origin story, Ivy Pepper has been transformed once again taking another step toward becoming the Ivy we know from the comics. Dangerous. A live wire of crazy energy. She’ll set her sights on Gotham, intent on making the city her own green paradise.”
Why such a long, windy road to get to the iconic Poison Ivy? Why yet another actress to play the same character? Was there something wrong with Geha? Hopefully, Gotham will be able to pin Ivy to a more traditional backstory now.
Gotham airs Thursday at 8PM EST on FOX.
