Viewers of the Batman origin TV series Gotham were finally introduced to the caped crusader's iconic arch nemesis in the CW show's fourth season.
But the maniacal jester won't be called the Joker. The villain's identity is confusing fans after Jeremiah became infected by a dangerous toxin that transformed him into the lunatic with the laugh.
There's definitely some funny business going on.
Cameron Monaghan portrays the dual role of the Valeski brothers – Jerome and Jeremiah – whose characters helped shape the backstory for the Joker. But the actor confirmed his character is not the Joker and that Warner Bros. prevents Gotham from using the character at all. Warner Bros. even has ownership of the trademark green hair.
Fans ridiculed Warner Bros.' full ownership of the Joker name to remain exclusively within the DC Extended Universe films.
Gotham executive producer John Stephen told CinemaBlend
We wanted to keep on playing with the ideas of the Joker, and also ways of telling the audience that Jerome is not our Joker -- not The Joker, even if he was our Joker -- or that he's doing another version of The Joker on the show who's also not The Joker. [laughs] But the idea was: Jerome, as chaotic and anarchic as the acting can be, doesn't embody all of the qualities that would go on to eventually be The Joker.
Stephen explained that giving Jerome a twin brother was a way to incorporate the chaotic qualities in shaping the character of the Joker.
So in creating Jeremiah, we wanted to give him [pieces from] different books, like the idea that he and Batman are paired together in a way, whether they're like brothers or two sides of the same coin -- whatever you want to say. So giving that to Jeremiah, creating a psychosis where Jerome is not the brother he should have had, but that Bruce is the brother he should have had. So he gets to entertain whether he wants to drive Bruce insane, which gave us the opportunity in tomorrow night's episode to play our version of The Killing Joke, which you can see in all the iconography whenever you watch the episode.
Monaghan commented on the ambiguity of the situation, saying there's no reason to be cynical of companies "being protective of their revenue streams and bottom lines."
This guy set the record straight.
He left it up to viewers on how to interpret the Clown Prince of Crime.
Fans appreciated his input.
One user admired Monaghan's take on the character by combining the best qualities of all those jokesters who've preceded him.
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