While there is a great deal of evidence to support the theory, the truth is that Jerome is not the Clown Prince of Crime of Gotham city. At the time of its premiere, Gotham promised several Easter eggs about the biggest enemy of the Dark Knight. We heard the demented laughter and the ‘HAHAHA’ graffiti adorned the city, throughout the series. In fact, we even saw a botched standup and a take on the Red Hood, both as homages to The Killing Joke.
With the introduction of Jerome Valeska, we thought that the Joker was here. He grew up in an abusive circus environment, and his dark past was soon revealed. Every season saw him grow more maniacal and the number of fans who started considering Cameron Monaghan’s portrayal to be a version of Joker. Ultimately, now we find out that it was all only an homage.
The Gotham co-executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt spoke to Comic Book, and he said that Jerome is never going to be the Joker on this show. In fact, he said that the villain is unlikely to ever feature on it.
“Obviously Jerome is our homage. He’s obviously not the Joker himself, although [he] clearly seems to be the impetus that eventually creates the Joker. The more that we see him, the more he carves out his own path I’d say. I wouldn’t say he becomes more the Joker, but the Jerome character continues to evolve.”
Honestly, this seems to be a disappointment and a cheat. The Gotham makers regularly made the fans feel that Joker and Harley Quinn were going to appear on the show and now they are backtracking after the media blitzkrieg is over. In fact, the latest appearance of Jerome seemed to be greatly similar to the Joker, right from the makeup to the clothes. However, considering what the brains behind the show are thinking, we feel that they are not cool with the idea of modifying the character.
“This is a show about origin. last year we paid homage to one of our favorite Batman stories, ‘The Killing Joke.’ I think there’s definitely stuff within the canon that we as a room are more willing to be nimble with and more willing to go a different direction than the cannon. For instance, the Penguin/Nygma love story. When it comes to Joker, he’s so iconic to that Batman character that it feels like we don’t want to get to Joker ever. Jerome feels like he is that origin of that.”
Once again this explanation seems to be ambiguous. Jerome has basically given Gotham a version of Joker. However, the producers are claiming that it is not the case so that they don’t face a backlash from the fans. Taking into account the love that Jerome has received from fans, this all confusion is avoidable. Irrespective of the truth, Monaghan left a lasting impression on this series, and it is normal for him to disappear for long spells, we just hope that he comes back soon.
