Fox’s ‘Gotham’ show will tell the Batman origin story … just much earlier

If “Gotham” gets a green light to air a full season on Fox, there is one thing that you better be ready to expect: A full tale of how Bruce Wayne came of age. While this show was originally advertised by many to be the sort of tale of Commissioner Gordon, make no mistake that this is also still just as much a Batman story as it is anything else.

Speaking at Fox’s TCA panel yesterday, the network’s programming head Kevin Reilly tried to make it clear that there was going to be a full story here that started with Bruce at the age of 12, and then slowly watched him grow up to be an adult. Not only that, but this Gotham City would have all sorts of characters that you are familiar with already:

“This is all of the classic Batman characters, with a young Bruce Wayne, the Penguin, the Riddler [and] how they came to be…. What events led up to [a person] becoming Catwoman…. all with Gotham teetering on the edge.”

It should be a given that this project is not canon with the recent Christopher Nolan franchise or anything else related to “Batman,” and will instead tell its own, independent tale. They paid a ton of money to DC in order to license the popular characters, and so there is not going to be anything that they are just not allowed to use.

As for when the show could premiere, a good guess would be in either the fall or early next year. Casting is the top priority now, with Gordon and the young Bruce being the two most important pieces to the puzzle. They are the characters that will spend a ton of time onscreen, and if you mess them up, you may as well just seal up the Batcave and go home.

This show will be executive-produced by Bruno Heller, whose “The Mentalist” has had some moments that give us hope that “Gotham” will live up to expectations.