Gotham Ivy
Clare Foley will not play Ivy Pepper, also known as Poison Ivy, in “Gotham” Season 3. Fox

Poison Ivy will be getting the soap opera treatment in “Gotham” Season 3. Daytime soaps are known for aging their characters quickly (referred to by fans as SOARS, or Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome), and it seems Fox’s Batman prequel is doing the same.

Clare Foley, 14, will not play the plant-loving villain when the DC Comics drama returns for Season 3. TVLine reports that Fox is casting an actress in her late teens to play the role. She’ll appear more often than the younger actress as well. Poison Ivy, also known as Ivy Pepper on “Gotham,” will be upgraded to a series regular position. Though Fox hasn’t announced any casting yet, we have a few suggestions for actresses who could take over the role:

Molly C. Quinn — Obviously she’s just a couple years out of actually being a teenager, but the 22-year-old certainly still looks young enough to play a high schooler. Plus, with “Castle” cancelled, she suddenly has a very free schedule.

Bella Thorne — She proved she can play the damsel in distress on “Scream,” and she’ll be the ingénue in “Famous in Love” on Freeform later this year. It looks like the only thing missing from her resume is a super villain.

Willow Shields — She’s not a redhead, but that’s nothing a little hair dye or a wig can’t fix. If Poison Ivy is going to be sticking around, “Gotham” needs a serious actress. “The Hunger Games” proved that the 16-year-old can handle dramatic material, so she seems like a great fit.

Of course, the Fox drama might want to do what they did with the rest of the young actors on “Gotham” and cast someone relatively unknown. No casting announcements have been made yet.

Whoever wins the part of Ivy won’t have to worry about being the only new actor on set. A long list of fresh characters are being introduced when the show returns in the fall, and producers have already teased a few of the arrivals. “We’ll be seeing Mad Hatter in Season 3,” executive producer John Stephens revealed to Comic Book Resources last month. “We’ll be seeing the Tweedle Brothers, too, if we’re going to bring the Hatter in. In line with the Court of Owls, we’ll be seeing Talon. And, we should be seeing Solomon Grundy.”

“Gotham” Season 3 is expected to premiere on Fox in the fall.

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