‘Gotham’ Season 4 Spoilers: Why The Joker Won’t Be A Full-Time Villain In Fox Show

The Joker (Cameron Monaghan) is arguably one of Batman’s most memorable and formidable opponents, but the villain only gets a little screentime in the Fox show “Gotham” compared to other characters such as the Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) and Riddler (Cory Michael Smith).

When asked why this is so, Drew Powell, who used to play Butch Gillian in the series, said that it’s because the Joker is a lone wolf who refuses to team up with anybody else. Should he become a main player, all the other villains would be forced to fade in the background.

READ: Will there be more LGBT characters in ‘Gotham’ Season 4?

“I feel like Jerome is a solo artist. He’s not one to team up with anyone. Early on he had his Maniax, but I think the evolution of that character is he’s a unique psychopath/sociopath, both. So I don’t see any teaming up with Jerome,” he told Cinema Blend. “And that’s part of the deal with him which was interesting; how they kind of had a Jerome section in the middle of our season. And part of that is the actor has another job, and the other part is that character is intense. 22 episodes is a lot of TV... So those characters that are super intense... you can’t use them all the time or it stresses people out. So yeah, I think when Jerome comes, it’s all about Jerome.”

Powell won’t be returning as Butch in the series, but he’ll most likely come back as the zombie, Solomon Grundy. Butch was shot in the head by Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) during the Season 3 finale, but when he arrived in the hospital, doctors learned that his real name is actually Cyrus Gold.

Comic book fans all know that Cyrus Gold is the 19th Century man who eventually became the evil zombie named Solomon Grundy, according to Heavy. The character was first introduced in “All-American Comics” #61 back in October 1944.

Over the years, the zombie has received different origin stories, the most popular of which was him dying in Gotham City’s Slaughter Swamp. In some variations, he was killed there, but in others, his body was simply brought there after his death. Several years later, he was resurrected as Solomon Grundy.

“Gotham” Season 4 will premiere on Sept. 28.