Fox’s odd forthcoming James Gordon/Bruce Wayne prequel show Gotham from the guy who created The Mentalist (i.e., Bruno Heller) just cast its Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. David Mazouz, aka, that little kid who played Kieffer Sutherland’s mute, autistic son on Touch, will be Bruce Wayne while Camren Bicondova, aka, a newbie who has 2 credits to her name to this point, will be Selina Kyle. This pre-teen version of Wayne is described as serious and soulful, to which we should all say, “Well, duh.” Selina’s character description is also in keeping with her Catwoman comic book counterpart, “Selina Kyle is a teenage orphan who is suspicious and wholly unpredictable. She’s a street thief and skilled pickpocket who is dangerous when cornered” (THR).
Your new Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne – It’s unclear how old Bicondova is, but Mazouz is 14, although the character will only be 12
Here’s Mazouz talking about Touch:
With these two new additions, the casting of Gotham’s regular characters is apparently now complete, with actors previously cast to play JamesGordon (Ben McKenzie), his boss (Zabryna Guevera) and fiance (Erin Richards), Harvey Bullock (Donald Logue), Alfred (Sean Pertwee), Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), and the Penguin’s boss (Jada Pinkett Smith). You can see a more in-depth run down of those actors as well as the comic book origins of their characters elsewhere on the site. Should this thing actually made it to air it’s believed the Riddler and the Joker will also be added to the cast at some point down the line.
Maybe we’re alone on this, but we’re still struggling to completely make sense of how this show is going to work. It is still officially described as (via THR) “an origin tale centering on DC Comics fixture commissioner James Gordon and the villains that made Gotham famous.” However, Fox President Kevin Reilly’s loose lips described something that sounded closer to Smallville, with Bruce Wayne first appearing as a 12-year-old young boy and the series’ end point being the moment he first dons the signature cape and cowl. As such, apparently it will be the twin narrative of Gordon’s ascension from rookie detective to police commissioner, and Wayne from brooding little kid to brooding young man composing heavy metal songs to illustrate his pain (that is, of course, if LEGO Movie is any indication).
If so, what’s their long-term plan for integrating Bruce Wayne into the story so that every time we cut back to him from whatever Gordon is up to doesn’t feel wholly unnecessary? Gordon investigating the murder of Wayne’s parents would only seem to be a short-term solution unless they posit a version of the story in which Gordon joins Alfred as a surrogate father figure for Bruce. This might end up feeling like the TV show version of X-Men: First Class, which began as two separate projects (X-Men prequel, Magneto prequel) which merged into one. That yielded mixed results there; what will it do for Gotham here? Plus, why, of all people, is The Mentalist creator the person WB-TV picked to usher the world of Batman back into live-action television?
Forgive our skepticism. This could be awesome. It’ll, at the very least, probably be better than the last time a Batman-related comic book franchise made it to live-action TV:
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
