List of Gotham (franchise) characters
The Gotham franchise is a media franchise and shared fictional universe that is the setting of television series, novels, and comic book series developed by Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, produced by DC Entertainment and based on characters that appear in DC Comics publications. The franchise began with the American crime television series Gotham, based on characters appearing in DC's Batman franchise.
Gotham, starring Ben McKenzie as a young Gordon, premiered in the United States on September 22, 2014 on the Fox television network and concluded on April 25, 2019 after five seasons. Heller and Cannon next developed Pennyworth, a spin-off prequel series to Gotham starring Jack Bannon as a younger incarnation of Gothams Alfred Pennyworth. Pennyworth aired for two seasons on Epix from July 28, 2019 to April 11, 2021. A third season, also loosely adapting V for Vendetta, aired on HBO Max from October 6 to November 24, 2022.
As originally conceived, Gotham would have served as a straightforward story of Gordon's early days on the Gotham City Police Department. The idea eventually evolved to not only include Wayne's "transformation" into Batman but also to explore the origin stories of several of his villains such as Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman. Pennyworth similarly explores Pennyworth's early life during the British Civil War, as he and Americans Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane seek to prevent the fascist Raven Society from overtaking the British government.
In addition to directly adapted characters from DC Comics, many other characters in the show are based on, inspired by, or otherwise references to preexisting characters.
Overview
Main characters
Recurring characters
Main characters
James Gordon
James "Jim" Gordon is a war veteran and homicide detective at the Gotham City Police Department in its 1st Grade working to find the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents and battling the corruption of Gotham City's Police Department. His father was Gotham City's District Attorney before his death in a car accident when Gordon was 13 years old.Fox began to develop a TV series centered on James Gordon's early days as a police detective and the origin stories of various Batman villains in September 2013. McKenzie was cast as the lead character. When describing his character in an interview, McKenzie stated that Gordon "is a truly honest man. The last honest man in a city full of crooked people. He's not an anti-hero, he's a true hero—but he will have to compromise". McKenzie did not audition for the role. Heller, with whom he had worked before, wrote the role for McKenzie, who described the character as "an old-fashioned hero in an age of anti-heroes. A throwback. Jim's a lawman, that restricts him in some ways. But also means he can become powerful within the system and change things for the better". In the show, Gordon is assigned to investigate the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, with Bruce being the surviving witness. During the first season, he is assigned with a new partner, Harvey Bullock, serving also to police captain Sarah Essen. In addition to the Wayne's murder case, Gordon solves various cases in Gotham, some of them which are connected to the powerful mob figures, like Fish Mooney, Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni. Jim also fights against corruption in the GCPD, like the police commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and Narcotics Officer Arnold Flass. To better fight against criminals and corrupt cops, Gordon gets allies such as police detectives Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen and District Attorney Harvey Dent. Gordon soon becomes reluctant ally to a criminal named Oswald Cobblepot, often calling him for the favor in some cases. He also meets a small street thief Selina Kyle, who reluctantly helps him regarding the Wayne murders. At one point, when he is assigned to Arkham Asylum, he meets physician Leslie Thompkins who works in the female ward, later working as a medical examiner in GCPD. Gordon later falls in love with her; he was previously in a relationship with Barbara Kean, but due to his police duty and her life being put in danger by crime families, he advised her to temporarily leave him until they meet again. When Barbara sees Gordon and Leslie together, she becomes heartbroken and later psychotic. When the gang war reaches its climax, Gordon and Bullock attempt to save Carmine Falcone. He, Falcone, Oswald and Butch Gilzean are captured by Fish Mooney and her gang. When Sal Maroni advises her to join, calling her "babe", she shoots him. Gordon manages to end gang war, but Cobblepot kills Fish Mooney in her apparent death when she falls in the river, becoming a new king of Gotham.
Six months after the gang war, in the second season, Jim is fired by Loeb after scolding police cop Franks, in addition getting a revenge on him. He returned on duty thanks to Cobblepot who accepted to help him. Jim soon faces a criminal group The Maniax, led by Jerome Valeska, the latter killing a new police commissioner and a former captain Sarah Essen. After Jerome is killed by Galavan, he soon joins new commissioner Nathaniel Barnes in the creation of the GCPD unit Strike Force to better fight against crime, terrorism, and corruption in Gotham. Gordon later discovers that some cases are masterminded by a billionaire and mayor's candidate Theo Galavan and his sister Tabitha. Initially unaware of his schemes, Jim realizes this after Cobblepot tells him that his mother was captured and later killed when Oswald was coerced to work for them. He soon faces him and a religious group The Order of St. Dumas who intend to kill Bruce Wayne as a revenge for their injustice for Galavan's dynasty in the past. When the Order was finished, Gordon later kills Galavan. A month after Galavan was killed, Gordon was put in testimony to the court, telling them that Oswald killed Galavan. This backfires when a former forensic, now rogue criminal Edward Nygma discovers a source who got a clue of Galavan's murder, a cop named Carl Pinkney. Exploiting it, Nygma gets the contact and kills him, framing Gordon for murder and putting him in Blackgate Penitentiary. He escapes from a corrupt warden, Carlson Grey, who he later finds out is Nygma, finally arresting him and Nygma going into Arkham. During that time, Gordon soon goes into the conflict with a new director of Arkham, a scientist Hugo Strange, who makes inhuman experimentations in Indian Hill, including the resurrections of Theo Galavan and Fish Mooney. Gordon learns that Hugo Strange hired the hitman Patrick "Matches" Malone to kill the Waynes when Hugo was friends with, but later betrayed them. Gordon, Bruce and Lucius Fox enter the Arkham to take down Strange and his workers, accidentally releasing the "monsters" on the Gotham's streets. They also save Selina Kyle who was searching for a friend called Bridget Pike. After the conflict with Hugo Strange at Arkham Asylum, Gordon left Gotham to find Leslie Thompkins, who had left Gotham, only later discovering that she was in a new relationship with Mario Calvi, discouraging him from pursuing her.
Six months later, in season 3, Gordon is working as a bounty hunter, forming an uneasy alliance with reporter Valerie Vale. After experiencing a hallucination of his father, Gordon decides to rejoin the department. After Mario is infected by Alice Tetch's poisonous blood, Mario manipulates Lee into turning against Gordon. Before Mario can kill Lee, Gordon kills him in self-defense. This destroys any relationship Jim or Lee ever had. As his career goes on, Jim finds out his father and Uncle Frank were members of the Court of Owls. After Frank reveals he killed Gordon's father to prevent him from spreading info about the Court, Frank commits suicide, but not before telling Gordon that he must join the Court. Gordon takes the blame for Frank's death and meets with the Court.
After saving some of his fellow police officers and some of Oswald Cobblepot's men from Professor Pyg, Jim is promoted to captain by mayor Burke.
Following the defeat of Bane and Nyssa al Ghul, Jim Gordon is promoted to police commissioner by Mayor Cheng. His relationship with Lee blooms-up again and the two of them get married.
Ten years later, Jim is planning to step down until Batman saves his daughter from Jeremiah.
Harvey Bullock
Harvey Bullock is a detective who is Gordon's loyal partner and ally. Bullock is a seemingly corrupt and brutish detective who has gradually become loyal to Jim Gordon. He also had a somewhat amicable relationship with Fish Mooney before turning against her. Bullock helps Gordon in solving various cases and later enters in a gang war near the end of the first season.At the beginning of the second season, Bullock resigns from the police force but rejoins following the Maniax attack on the GCPD. After Gordon is framed for the murder of Carl Pinkney, Bullock enlists Carmine Falcone to help break Jim out of prison. When Captain Barnes is hospitalized after an attack by Azrael, Harvey is declared the de facto Captain until further notice and is trusted by Jim to protect Gotham after new threats emerge while he is away.
Six months later, Harvey is working with Barnes to protect Gotham and while Jim refuses to return to the department, Harvey vows to never turn his back on him. When Nathaniel Barnes gets infected with the Alice Tetch virus and is remanded to Arkham Asylum, Harvey becomes the acting captain.
In light of being promoted to captain by Mayor Burke after saving some police officers and some of Oswald Cobblepot's men from Professor Pyg's trap, Gordon reluctantly relieves Bullock of his position of acting captain.
In the series finale 10 years later, he is framed for murder, only for Gordon to deduce that it was a setup by Jeremiah, whom Bruce then subdues during his first outing as Batman. At the end of the episode, Bullock joins Gordon in witnessing Batman watching over them.