Gotham series finale: Camren Bicondova won’t be Catwoman; see why
If you’ve been reading a lot of Gotham teases for the past few weeks, then you may have already heard the rumors that Camren Bicondova is not going to be playing the character of Selina Kyle for the final episode.
Now, we’ve got a little more of a sense as to why — and that it was Camren’s own decision to let someone else take the reigns of the character for the final episode. She credited Fox and Warner Bros. TV for allowing her the time to make a decision about if she wanted to play a flash-forward version of Catwoman, and eventually, it was decided that Ray Donovan / Hawaii Five-0 actress Lili Simmons will be playing the part in the final episode. Camren credits Simmons in a lengthy post on Twitter (see below) for her dedication to the role, noting that the two had long conversations and she helped her to realize fully her own interpretation of the role.
Even though the finale is just one episode of the series, it does feel like Simmons really is setting out to get the role right. This is a lot of preparation that she did for just a single episode of TV, and you can see from the first-look photo of her (via Entertainment Weekly) that production really did put everything that they could into trying to replicate what Camren’s version of Selina would look like ten years down the road.
As for how much we do end up seeing of Selina through the entire finale, that’s a good question given that there really is only so much time in a single episode of slightly more than 40 minutes (sans commercials). Remember everything else that needs to be addressed here, whether it be fully-formed versions of the Penguin and the Riddler to introducing Batman to giving us a good sense of the show’s interpretation of the Joker … even if they never quite same his name, it’s pretty clear that this is what they are going for.
The thing that of course makes us sadder than anything else is that Gotham is ending, and that it’s also ending with just a 12-episode final season. When you look at the way that Fox stretched out a significant chunk of its final season, it’s abundantly clear to us that they could have found a way to order 15 episodes and allowed a little more of an arc for some of its characters, including Bane, who weren’t given a whole lot of screen time. Or, allowed deeper story arcs for some of the characters who were only in a handful of scenes here and there.
What do you most want to see in regards to the Gotham series finale, and what do you think about Lili stepping in for the Selina Kyle role? Share in the attached comments.